Taxonomic Tithing: What it’s all about…

This webpage is dedicated to Taxonomic Tithing (pronounced tithe-ing): an initiative we hope will enable taxonomists–including lichen taxonomists–to make a real difference in the world.

Taxonomists are people who name things: birds, mushrooms, slime molds, algae, mammals, lichens, you name it. Over the years it has become clear to us that some taxonomists would like to give something back to the wild places that support the organisms then study. And clearly, too, some philanthropists would like to be remembered to posterity as conservationists: people who really made a difference in the world.

So how about this: why not bring the the taxonomists together with the philanthropists? After all, what better way to be remembered to posterity than in the name of some as-yet-undescribed rare species that makes its home in an as-yet-unprotected rare ecosystem. A species like the undescribed Collema pictured here: a thallus that only a mother could love, but that any right-thinking person, surely, could find it in her heart to wish well.

Enter Taxonomic Tithing.

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