Lecanora sensu lato is a group of crustose lichens comprising ca. 1000 recognized spp., and subdivided in several morphology-based clusters, some with good phylogenetic support and thus segregated as new genera. One of the remaining unsolved groups, the Lecanora saligna-group encompasses corticolous, usnic and isousnic acid bearing, crustose lichens, distributed on the northern hemisphere. Through morphological assessment and phylogenetic analysis of 2 loci, the L. saligna-group appears to be that two main clades and several minor clades with geographical distinctiveness and with good support are being arisen. The majority of the clades can be characterized by morphological means, but several clades are “mixed” on the sense that these contains species that are morphologically distinctive, but are genetically close related, leading to the fact that species circumscriptions are still unsettled. On the other hand, it appears that phylogenetic signal given by the two loci used here is high enough to distinguish species. Also, there is evidence for distinctive lineages in different geographical regions, e.g. North American individuals designed as “Lecanora cf. saligna” and “Lecanora aff. albellula” all nest together neatly on two different separated clades, while their European counterparts, albeit also splitting into two well supported clades, some individuals from North America does show within these clades. On the same note, some entries coming from the Caucasus and Iran arise together forming a well-supported clade, which all of them share very particular morphological traits that are not present on the rest of the saligna-group, while still maintaining close genetic ties with the rest of the taxa.
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