''Lecanographa dialeuca'' is a species of

saxicolous A saxicolous lichen is a lichen that grows on rock. The prefix "sax" from the Latin means "rock" or "stone". Characteristics Saxicolous lichens exhibit very slow growth rates. They may develop on rock substrates for long periods of time, give ...

(rock-dwelling)

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

Roccellaceae The Roccellaceae are a family of fungi in the order Arthoniomycetes. Most taxa are lichenized with green algae, although some are lichenicolous, growing on other lichens. Genera , Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accepts 47 genera an ...

. It is found in

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

and Europe.

Taxonomy

It was first described by Scottish

James Stirton James Stirton (1833, Coupar Angus, Perthshire – 14 January 1917, Glasgow) was a Scottish physician and one of Scotland's leading experts on cryptogamic botany. His investigations in bryology and lichenology earned him a world-wide reputation. B ...

in 1874, with the name ''Opegrapha undulata''. The type specimen was collected from

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

, as part of the ''Challenger'' expedition of 1872–1876.

James Mascall Morrison Crombie Rev. James Mascall Morrison Crombie (1831 – 12 May 1906) was a Scottish lichenologist. Biography Crombie was born in Aberdeen sometime in 1831, and attended Marischal College. He went on to earn his M.A. from Edinburgh University. His first ...

mentioned the species in an 1877 publication in which he revised and added his own notes about the lichens collected by Stirton. Crombie noted that the species was the same as one that he had named ''Opegrapha dialeuca''. It was later discovered that the name ''Opegrapha undulata'' had already been used by

François Fulgis Chevallier François Fulgis Chevallier (1796, Paris – 1840) was a French botanist whose areas of interest included fungi, ferns and algae. In 1821 he received his doctorate with a thesis on indigenous hemlock in regard to considerations as a poison an ...

in 1824, and consequently, Stirton's use of the name was

invalid Invalid may refer to: * Patient, a sick person * one who is confined to home or bed because of illness, disability or injury (sometimes considered a politically incorrect term) * .invalid, a top-level Internet domain not intended for real use As t ...

. Because Crombie had noted

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

with his ''Opegrapha dialeuca'', that species epithet replaced the unavailable epithet ''undulata''. José María Egea Fernández and Pilar Torrente transferred the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

to ''

Lecanographa ''Lecanographa'' is a genus of about 40 species of lichens in the family Lecanographaceae. It was circumscribed in 1994 by José M. Egea and Pilar Torrente, with ''Lecanographa lyncea'' as the type species. Species *'' Lecanographa abscondita'' ...

'' in 1994, when they

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 ...

that new genus as a result of their studies on the family

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 ...

. They also proposed that the taxon named ''Opegrapha huneckii'' by Gerhard Follmann and Oscar Klement in 1970, collected from

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, is the same species as ''Lecanographa dialeuca''.

Habitat and distribution

''Lecanographa dialeuca'' is found in coastal areas of Macaronesia. In 2000, the lichen was recorded from Europe. A single specimen was collected from Sálvora Island ( Galicia, northwest Spain), an uninhabited island with an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

. Although it differs slightly in some characteristics from the description given by Egea and Torrente, Graciela Paz-Bermúdez considered the two specimens to represent the same species. The Galician specimen was found on a sheltered

granitic rock A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quartz- ...

overhang, growing with other lichens such as '' Dirina massiliensis'', '' Lecanographa grumulosa'', ''

Roccella phycopsis ''Roccella phycopsis'' is a species of lichen in the family Roccellaceae. A study of ''Roccella phycopsis'' in Tunisia revealed that it contains methyl orcellinate, a chemical compound of interest for its anti-inflammatory Anti-inflammatory is t ...

'', '' Sclerophyton circumscriptum'', and species of ''

Opegrapha ''Opegrapha'' is a genus of lichenized fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organi ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21273252 Arthoniomycetes Lichen species Lichens described in 1877 Lichens of Europe Lichens of Macaronesia Taxa named by James Mascall Morrison Crombie