''Chrysothrix septemseptata'' is a species of

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

in the family

Arthoniaceae The Arthoniaceae are a family of lichenized, lichenicolous and saprobic fungi in the order Arthoniales. The Arthoniaceae is the largest family of Arthoniales, with around 800 species. Most species in Arthoniaceae belong in '' Arthonia'' which is ...

. Found in India, it was formally described as a new species in 2006 by T.A.M. Jagadeesh Ram,

H. Thorsten Lumbsch Helge Thorsten Lumbsch (born 1964) is a German-born lichenologist living in the United States. His research interests include the phylogeny, taxonomy, and phylogeography of lichen-forming fungi; lichen diversity; lichen chemistry and chemotax ...

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist. He is a leading expert on foliicolous lichens–lichens that live on leaves. Life and career Born in Ulm in 1964, Lücking earned both his master's (1990) and PhD degree (1994) at the Univer ...

, and G.P. Sinha. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

was collected in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

); here it was found growing on the bark of the mangrove tree ''

Tamarix gallica ''Tamarix gallica'', the French tamarisk, is a deciduous, herbaceous, twiggy shrub or small tree reaching up to about 5 meters high. It is indigenous to Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula, and very common around the Mediterranean region. It i ...

''. The lichen grows as a thin lemon-yellow crust measuring in diameter, with isolated patches sometimes coalescing. It contains

vulpinic acid Vulpinic acid is a natural product first found in and important in the symbiosis underlying the biology of lichens. It is a simple methyl ester derivative of its parent compound, pulvinic acid, and a close relative of pulvinone, both of which de ...

as a major secondary chemical, and minor amounts of calycin. ''Chrysothrix septemseptata'' is only known to occur at the type locality. Other mangrove trees that it is found on include '' Brugruiera gymnorhiza'', '' Heritiera fomes'', and ''

Sonneratia apetala ''Sonneratia'' is a genus of plants in the family Lythraceae. Formerly the Sonneratia were placed in a family called Sonneratiaceae which included both the ''Sonneratia'' and the ''Duabanga'', but these two are now placed in their own monotyp ...

'', as well as the non-mangrove tree ''

Casuarina equisetifolia ''Casuarina equisetifolia'', common names ''Coastal She-oak'' or ''Horsetail She-oak'' (sometimes referred to as the Australian pine tree or whistling pine tree outside Australia), is a she-oak species of the genus ''Casuarina''. The native ...

''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''septemseptata'' refers to the seven

septa The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

that are characteristic of the

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...

s of this lichen.

References

septemseptata Lichen species Lichens described in 2006 Lichens of India Taxa named by Helge Thorsten Lumbsch Taxa named by Robert Lücking {{Arthoniomycetes-stub