Increased urbanization often leads to an altered and/or reduced lichen flora. Here we characterize the corticolous macrolichen flora of the Madison, Wisconsin area, and compare the present-day flora with historic collections made in the vicinity during the 1890's. The present-day flora consists mostly of small foliose taxa (16), which frequently occur in urban areas, a smaller number of medium-foliose taxa (13) and a very small number of fruticose taxa (3). Forty-four percent of the taxa collected in the 1890's are no longer found in the area, with the greatest amount of loss occurring in the medium-large foliose (62.5%) and fruticose (40%) guilds. Interestingly, three fruticose taxa, which were thought to have disappeared from the study area, were found in the modern survey.