Field Guide to the Lichens of White Rocks is a careful examination of the lichens that occur at the ecologically important and lichenologically rich urban outcropping of Fox Hills sandstone known as White Rocks Nature Preserve, located in Boulder County, Colorado.
 
This extensively illustrated field guide presents detailed information on the macroscopic and microscopic features needed to identify species, as well as extensive notes on how to differentiate closely related lichens—both those present at White Rocks and those likely to be found elsewhere in western North America. This guide is one of the only complete lichen inventories of a sandstone formation in North America and covers all constituents including the crustose microlichen biota, traditionally excluded from other inventories. A short introduction and glossary equip the reader with basic information on lichen morphology, reproduction, and ecology.
 
Visitors to White Rocks Nature Preserve must schedule staff-led public tours or set up sponsored research projects through the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, and there are many other outcroppings of Fox Hills sandstone across the West, making Field Guide to the Lichens of White Rocks a significant resource for anyone interested in this unique environment. This accessible, user-friendly guide will also be valuable to naturalists and lichenologists around the world as well as educators, conservationists, and land managers concerned with the growing significance of open spaces and other protected urban areas throughout North America.
 
 
The University Press of Colorado gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the University of Colorado Natural History Museum, City of Boulder Parks & Open Spaces, and the Colorado Native Plant Society board and members toward the publication of this book.
 

Erin A. Tripp is assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of botany at the Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado Boulder. She is a biodiversity scientist whose research focuses on the diversity and evolution of flowering plants and lichens and was the recipient of the 2011 George R. Cooley Award from the Botanical Society of America.