''Golubkovia'' is a single-species

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 ...

in the family

Teloschistaceae The Teloschistaceae are a large family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The family, estimated to contain over 1800 species, was extensively revised in 2013, including the creation o ...

. It contains the species ''Golubkovia trachyphylla'', a

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 ...

. 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 ...

in 2014 by

Sergey Kondratyuk Sergey Yakovlevich Kondratyuk ( uk, Сергій Якович Кондратюк) (born 17 May 1959) is a Ukrainian botanist specialising in lichenology. His research deals with the taxonomy, floristics, ecology and geography of lichens and lic ...

Ingvar Kärnefelt Jan Eric Ingvar Kärnefelt (born 1944) is a Swedish lichenologist. Early life and education Kärnefelt was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1944. His initial goal in his higher-level studies at University of Cologne in 1966–1967 was to become ...

, John Elix, Arne Thell, and Jae-Seoun Hur. The generic name honours Russian lichenologist Nina Golubkova (1932–2009), who, according to the authors, "made important contributions to lichenology in northern Eurasia". ''Golubkovia'' belongs to a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

contains the genus ''

Xanthomendoza ''Xanthomendoza'' is a genus of small, bright orange foliose lichen, foliose lichens with lecanorine apothecia. It is in the family Teloschistaceae. Members of the genus are List of common names of lichen genera, commonly called sunburst lichens ...

'', with which it shares the characteristic of having a well-developed, thick layer of plectenchyma in the medulla. Unlike ''Xanthomendoza'', ''Golubkovia'' does not have a lower cortical layer, it has an upper cortical layer that is scleroplectenchymatous, and it has a prosoplectenchymatous true exciple (the ring-shaped layer surrounding the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others some ...

). Additionally, the lichen is attached differently to its substrate. ''Golubkovia trachyphylla'' is a widely distributed lichen found in Asia and North America, where it grows on rocks in arid habitat. It has a yellow-orange, crustose

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...

that is placodioid in form (i.e., comprising lobes that radiate out from a centre).

References

Teloschistales Lichen genera Taxa described in 2014 Teloschistales genera Taxa named by Sergey Kondratyuk Taxa named by Ingvar Kärnefelt Taxa named by John Alan Elix {{Teloschistales-stub