In studies concerning nature conservation issues common lichen species have usually been neglected although collecting of these results gives comparatively small disturbance of the populations and is easily done. Instead rare or threatened species or species usually have been used as indicators of sites with high biodiversity. Here, the macrolichen diversity is compared with the diversity of woody plants and other characteristics of different sites in Estonia, Finland and Sweden as a part of a larger project including comparative studies on habitats with presumably high species diversity The site selection was based on the occurrence of Daphne mezereum which usually occurs in semi-open habitats in transitions zones containing species from the surrounding biotopes. One of the main objectives with the study was to develop a fairly rapid method of evaluation of biodiversity using easily identified species. As total inventories are time consuming and reflects snapshots of a certain occasion it is beneficial to use other methods which may give a little less but sufficient information for many purposes, e.g., estimations on biodiversity. The ecological and evolutionary processes that shape diversity and distributions are general and results are assumed to be translatable from the target species to other species. The combination of data from a small number of species may constitute a useful monitoring protocol for lichens and higher plants. In total about 50 lichen species and 25 substrates are included and analyzed in the study. Most of the most common lichens are sorediate or isidiate and asexually reproducing and occur on several substrates. The relation between the diversity of lichen and woody plants is presented.