The study of lichens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has a documented history spanning more than 150 years, resulting in an exceptional archive of historical and contemporary data. Early records by pioneering lichenologists such as Darbishire, Laundon, Gilbert, Hawksworth, and Aptroot established a foundation that now serves as a valuable reference for understanding long-term changes in urban and semi-natural lichen communities. This extensive body of work illustrates how fluctuations in air quality, climate, landscape management, and ecological continuity have shaped lichen assemblages at Kew over time.

In recent decades, the integration of historical records with modern biodiversity surveys and molecular approaches has enhanced the capacity to reconstruct ecological patterns with greater precision. Contemporary investigations include detailed species documentation, assessment of bark-, stone-, and soil-dwelling communities, fine-scale mapping of distributions, and microscopy-based analyses of morphological and anatomical traits. Together, these datasets provide critical insights into the dynamics of lichen communities within a managed botanical landscape.

Lichens at Kew function not only as sensitive indicators of environmental change—reflecting levels of urban pollution, nitrogen enrichment, and microclimatic shifts—but also represent an important component of urban biodiversity. The high diversity of crustose lichens in the Rock Garden, the presence of epiphytic species in the Arboretum, and the survival of communities on historic substrates all demonstrate the potential of curated botanical environments to support specialist and slow-growing taxa.

The combined historical and modern datasets form a robust framework for analysing long-term ecological trends and informing conservation strategies. Such information contributes to habitat management, environmental assessment, and the broader understanding of how lichens respond to changing conditions in urban green spaces. Moreover, these records offer valuable opportunities for future research, including molecular phylogenetics, species distribution modelling, and assessments of lichen sensitivity under emerging climate scenarios.

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