''Dolichocarpus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Opegraphaceae ''Opegraphaceae'' is a family of lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi in the order Arthoniales. It was originally proposed by German lichenologist Ernst Stizenberger in 1862. It fell into disuse, but was resurrected in a molecular phylogenetic ...

. The genus was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

by lichenologist

Rolf Santesson Rolf Santesson (1916–2013) was a Swedish lichenologist and university lecturer. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 1992 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Early life and education Santesson was born in 1916 in Trollhättan, Swe ...

in 1949, with ''

Dolichocarpus chilensis ''Dolichocarpus'' is a genus of lichens in the family Opegraphaceae. The genus was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed by lichenologist Rolf Santesson in 1949, with ''Dolichocarpus chilensis'' assigned as the type species. This species, fou ...

'' assigned as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. This species, found in Chile, grows on cactus spines in a

fog desert A fog desert is a type of desert where fog drip supplies the majority of moisture needed by animal and plant life. Examples of fog deserts include the Atacama Desert of coastal Chile and Peru, the Baja California Desert of Mexico, the Namib Dese ...

. For several decades the genus remained

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

, until 2008 when

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 ...

added '' Dolichocarpus seawardii''. This lichen, found on

St Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

, forms large patches on wet, overhanging rock ledges.

References

Arthoniomycetes Lichen genera Arthoniomycetes genera Taxa named by Rolf Santesson Taxa described in 1949 {{Arthoniomycetes-stub