Notes: For geological reasons, the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota are frequently lumped with the Bear Lodge Mountains and Devils Tower and Missouri Buttes(?) of eastern Wyoming. That is the sense used here to define the greater region of the “Black Hills”.

In any case, this location is very important for understanding the overall distribution of North American plants and lichens (and therefor possibly fungi, too). It is the easternmost part of the Rocky Mountains uplift, but also the westernmost extent of a few eastern hardwoods. For lichens, it is the northern most extent of a number of southwestern species, the easternmost extent of a few southeastern species, the southernmost (in the midwest) of countless boreal species (they often extend farther south in either the Appalachians or Rockies, though).

Examples of species at or near the edge of their range here:
Anaptychia setifera (eastern)
Cladonia caespiticia (eastern)
Cladonia robbinsii (southeastern)
Flavoparmelia caperata (eastern)
Heterodermia japonica (southern)
Hypotrachyna laevigata (southern)
Lasallia papulosa (eastern plus western/northern disjuncts)
Letharia lupina (western)
Pannaria tavaresii (southern)
Parmotrema crinitum (southeastern)
Peltigera canina s. str. (northern and western)
Peltigera venosa (western)
Punctelia jeckeri (southwestern)
Solorina saccata (northwestern)