''Leptogium subazureum'' is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling) and

foliose lichen Foliose lichen is one of the morphological classes of lichens, which are complex organisms that arise from the symbiotic relationship between fungi and a photosynthetic partner, typically algae. This partnership allows lichen to live in diverse ...

in the family

Collemataceae The Collemataceae are a lichenized family of fungi in the order Peltigerales. The family contains ten genera and about 325 species. The family has a widespread distribution. Taxonomy The family was circumscribed by Jonathan Carl Zenker in 1827; ...

. Found in India, it was formally described as a new species in 2010 by Archana Dube and Urmila Vasudev Makhija. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

was collected along the road from

Ajra Ajara is a census town and the taluka headquarters of Ajara taluka in Kolhapur district in the state of Maharashtra, India. Geography Ajara is located at . It has an average elevation of . It is known for its scenic and green landscape, as we ...

to Amboli (

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

) at an elevation of . It is one of the most common lichens in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. It grows along with

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es on the twigs and trunks of trees. 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 ...

''subazureum'' alludes to its resemblance with '' Leptogium azureum'', which differs in

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...

size.

References

subazureum Lichen species Lichens described in 2010 Lichens of India {{Peltigerales-stub