''Herpothallon fertile'' is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), 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 ...

. Originally described from specimens collected in Costa Rica, it was formally described as new to science in 2009 by the 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

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 ...

. It also occurs in Brazil, and is considered by the authors to have a wide distribution in "tropical parts of America". Its species epithet ''fertile'' reflects the fact that it is the only species of ''

Herpothallon ''Herpothallon'' is a genus of crustose lichens in the family Arthoniaceae. It has about 50 species. Taxonomy The genus was circumscribed in 1930 by German lichenologist Friedrich Tobler, with ''Herpothallon sanguineum'' assigned as the type sp ...

'' to have been found with

asci ASCI or Asci may refer to: * Advertising Standards Council of India * Asci, the plural of ascus, in fungal anatomy * Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative * American Society for Clinical Investigation * Argus Sour Crude Index * Association of ...

and .

References

fertile Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertilit ...

Lichen species Lichens described in 2009 Lichens of Brazil Lichens of Central America Taxa named by André Aptroot Taxa named by Robert Lücking {{Arthoniomycetes-stub