Polycauliona comandorica

Polycauliona comandorica is a species of fruticulose (minutely shrubby) lichen in the family Teloschistaceae. It was formally described as a new species in 2021 by Dmitry Himelbrant, Irina Stepanchikova, and Ivan Frolov.

Polycauliona comandorica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Teloschistales
Family: Teloschistaceae
Genus: Polycauliona
Species:
P. comandorica
Binomial name
Polycauliona comandorica
Himelbrant, Stepanchikova & I.V.Frolov (2021)

The lichen is found in the splash zone of the Commander Islands in the Russian Far East; its specific epithet comandorica refers to its type locality. The type specimen was collected on Medny Island, under a colony of horned puffins. A close association with seabird colonies is common to all of the known localities of this lichen species. Several secondary compounds have been detected in the lichen, including parietin as a major compound, and minor to trace amounts of parietinic acid, emodin, citreorosein, emodinal, emodic acid, fallacinal, and teloschistin.[1]

The fruticulose growth form is rather rare in the Teloschistaceae, with about a dozen examples known in the family of about one thousand species. P. comandorica is somewhat similar in morphology to P. thamnodes; it is distinguished by its lighter yellow to grey thallus, its rougher, longer and thicker branches; its soredia and blastidia; and in the absence of apothecia.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Frolov, Ivan V.; Himelbrant, Dmitry E.; Stepanchikova, Irina S.; Prokopiev, Ilya A. (2021). "Polycauliona comandorica, a new fruticulose species in the family Teloschistaceae from the Commander Islands, Russia". The Lichenologist. 53 (4): 299–306. doi:10.1017/s0024282921000268. S2CID 236502579.