Botanical research

Research at the Botany Department of the Museum of Evolution is primarily focused on fungi and lichens. The museum houses laboratories for microscopic and chemical analyses, as well as a dedicated DNA laboratory.

Exploration and preservation of the Swedish flora

Collecting

To document Sweden’s flora and to collect valuable material for a wide range of research purposes, we carry out fieldwork across the country. In recent years, our excursions have taken us to the mountain regions of Lapland, the forests of Ångermanland and Jämtland and the alvar habitats of Gotland and Öland.

During the winter months, we work with the collected material: identifying species, digitising specimens and incorporating them into the herbarium collections. Our most significant discoveries are also published in scientific journals; for example, in 2017 we reported 11 lichen species that had never before been recorded in Sweden.

Floras

An important part of our work is to provide identification keys and floras for both the general public and the research community. Roland Moberg’s Lichens – A Field Guide and Svengunnar Ryman’s Fungi – A Field Guide have become classics among nature enthusiasts. Roland Moberg is also the editor of the Nordic Lichen Flora.

Red Listing

Members of our staff serve as experts on the Swedish Species Information Centre’s committees for Red Listing. Red Listing is an internationally developed system used to evaluate and assess the conservation status of species in the wild, and the Swedish Red List is an important tool for setting nature conservation priorities.

The most recent Red List was published in 2020, and work is currently under way on the Red List 2025.

Our researchers

• Stefan Ekman, senior curator
• Åsa Kruys, curator of the fungus collections
• Måns Svensson, curator
• Martin Westberg, curator of the lichen collections

Selected projects

Lichens in Fiby Old-Growth Forest

In 2016, Martin Westberg, Stefan Ekman and Gesa von Hirschheydt carried out a thorough survey of lichens in the Fiby old-growth forest nature reserve outside Uppsala. The result was an extensive species list comprising nearly 250 species, many of which are rare. A popular science article presenting the work has been published in the journal Fauna och Flora.

Evolution in the lichen family Ramalinaceae

The family Ramalinaceae includes everything from large, conspicuous lichens with a shrubby growth form to small, inconspicuous crustose lichens. The latter make up the overwhelming majority of the family and comprise several hundred species.

Stefan Ekman uses a combination of anatomical, chemical and genetic data to investigate which species exist, how they are related to one another, what they should be called, and where they occur, for example, whether they are found in Sweden. For many groups within the family, this knowledge is still lacking, as they have never been studied in detail.
His research focuses in particular on species within the genera Bacidia, Bacidina, Toniniopsis and Scutula. These genera include some common species, but also many with highly specific habitat requirements that are, or may become, listed as threatened on the Red List.

Population genetics of Sarcosoma globosum

Sarcosoma globosum is a large and striking ascomycete that grows in the needle litter of spruce forests across the Northern Hemisphere. The fungus is associated with long‑established forest habitats, and as such forests have declined, populations of Sarcosoma globosum have decreased markedly over the past century.

The species is globally Red‑listed and has become extinct in several European countries. To gain a better understanding of its ecological requirements, Åsa Kruys studies the genetic variation of Sarcosoma globosum populations, as well as their patterns of dispersal and migration.

Lecideoid lichens in Fennoscandia

Lecideoid crustose lichens form a large and diverse group in which species delimitation and evolutionary relationships have long been poorly understood. With support from the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative, Måns Svensson carried out a research project between 2017 and 2023 aimed at clarifying the taxonomy of lecideoid species.

As a result of the project, two genera and three species were described as new to science, 33 synonymisations were established, and 31 species were recorded for the first time in Sweden. In addition, many other species were revised, lectotypified and/or had their species boundaries substantially redefined.

Taxonomy of the lichen genus Rinodina

The cosmopolitan crustose lichen genus Rinodina has traditionally included species with lecanorine apothecia and mostly brown, one‑septate ascospores. Several hundred species have been described, of which 61 are considered to occur in Fennoscandia, and the genus is a characteristic feature of many different habitats.

Despite its worldwide distribution, neither the genus as a whole nor any particular group within it has undergone a comprehensive revision combining morphological and molecular methods. The aim of this project is to revise species delimitation and nomenclature for the Fennoscandian species of Rinodina, with a focus on non‑saxicolous species. We also seek to clarify the generic placement of these species and to improve understanding of their distribution and ecology.

The project began in 2024 and is funded by the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative.