''Cladonia minisaxicola'' is a rare species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling)
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Cladoniaceae. Found in Bahia, Brazil, it was formally described as a new species in 2018 by lichenologists
André Aptroot
André Aptroot (Heemskerk, 1961) is a Dutch mycologist and lichenologist.
In 1993 he did his PhD at the University of Utrecht under the supervision of Robbert Gradstein (nl). His dissertation was titled "Systematic studies on pyrenocarpous li ...
and Marcela Eugenia da Silva Cáceres. The type specimen was collected by the authors from the Serrano along Rio de
Lençóis
Lençóis is a municipality in the state of Bahia in Brazil. The population is 11,499 (2020 est.) in an area of 1277 km². The town has a well-preserved colonial atmosphere and is the starting point for treks into Chapada Diamantina
Chap ...
at an altitude between ; here the lichen was found growing on siliceoussandstone rock in a
transitional forest
Forest transition refers to a geographic theory describing a reversal or turnaround in land-use trends for a given territory from a period of net forest area loss (i.e., deforestation) to a period of net forest area gain. The term "landscape turn ...
. ''Cladonia minisaxicola'' is only known to occur at the
type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
(part of the Chapada Diamantina mountains), and is only known from the type specimen. The lichen has a crustose thallus that consists of lobe-like nodes that collectively form an irregular crust measuring up to in diameter. Although it differs from all other species of '' Cladonia'' in the form of its non- squamulose primary thallus, its position in that genus has been confirmed with
molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
analysis. 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 ...
''minisaxicola'' acknowledges its small size and saxicolous growth.