''Niebla pulchribarbara '' is a rare fruticose lichen that occurs on sandy beaches or gravelly soil along the Pacific Coast, at San Antonio del Mar and at Bahía de

San Quintín, Baja California San Quintín is a city in San Quintín Municipality, Baja California, located on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The city had a population of 4777 in 2011. San Quintín is an important agricultural center for Baja California. The city is also an emer ...

.Spjut, R. W. 1996. ''Niebla'' and ''Vermilacinia'' (Ramalinaceae) from California and Baja California. Sida Bot. Misc. 14 The species epithet, ''pulchribarbara'', is in reference to the strikingly beautiful lichen mat formed by the

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 ...

Distinguishing features

''Niebla pulchribarbara'' is distinguished by a hemispherical mat-like

, divided into numerous tangled sublinear-prismatic branches to 8 cm high and 16 cm across, and by containing the lichen substance protocetraric acid, without triterpenes. The species (''N. pulchribarbara'') is known only from two locations in

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

: (1) growing on stony ground on a mesa above San Antonio del Mar, and (2) growing on sand at .

Taxonomic history

''Niebla pulchribarbara'' was described by Phillip Rundel and Peter Bowler as a result of conducting an ecological study of a lichen fog community at Bahía de San Quintín in March 1971.Rundel P., P. A. Bowler and T. W. Mulroy. 1972. A fog-induced lichen community in northwestern Baja California, with two new species of ''Desmazieria'' The Bryologist 75: 501–508. They distinguished the species in the genus ''Desmazieria'' that was later determined to be illegitimate (later

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

for a genus of grass ''

Desmazeria ''Desmazeria'' is a genus of Mediterranean plants in the grass family, related to ''Catapodium''. The genus is named for John Baptiste Henri Joseph Desmazières, (1796-1862) a French merchant, amateur botanist, and editor of scientific journals. ...

'') and they replaced it by a new name, ''Niebla''. They distinguished ''Niebla pulchribarbara'' from '' Niebla homalea'' and also from one other new species they described (''

Niebla josecuervoi ''Niebla josecuervoi '' is a fruticose lichen that grows on rock, stony soil and sand along the Pacific Coast of northern Baja California from near Misión San Vicente Ferrer to Punta Santa Rosalilillita.Spjut, R. W. 1996. ''Niebla'' and ''Ve ...

'') by the medulla reaction to ''para''-phenylenediamine chemical spot test,

depsidone Depsidones (+ "depside" + "one") are chemical compounds that are sometimes found as secondary metabolites in lichens. They are esters that are both depsides and cyclic ethers. An example is norstictic acid Norstictic acid is a depsidone produced ...

s (pd+),

depside A depside is a type of polyphenolic compound composed of two or more monocyclic aromatic units linked by an ester bond. Depsides are most often found in lichens, but have also been isolated from higher plants, including species of the Ericaceae, L ...

s (pd-), while they also selected a different for each

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, protocetraric acid for ''N. pulchribarbara'',

salazinic acid Salazinic acid is a depsidone with a lactone ring. It is found in some lichens, and is especially prevalent in ''Parmotrema'' and ''Bulbothrix'', where its presence or absence is often used to help classify species in those genera. History I ...

for ''N. josecuervoi''. However, the two new species were distinguished by the

habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

of the thallus, saxicolous with branches connected to a basal holdfast (''N. josecuervoi''), and

terricolous A terricolous lichen is a lichen that grows on the soil as a substrate. An example is some members of the genus ''Peltigera ''Peltigera'' is a genus of approximately 100 species of foliose lichens in the family Peltigeraceae. Commonly known as ...

, lying loose on sand (''N. pulchribarbara''). Richard Spjut distinguished the two species by their lichen substances and branching patterns that resulted in describing two more

species with

in order to clarify their taxonomy: ''

Niebla effusa ''Niebla effusa '' is a fruticose lichen that grows on gravelly soil along the foggy Pacific Coast of Baja California from near Punta Colonet south to near Punta Rosarito.Spjut, R. W. 1996. ''Niebla'' and ''Vermilacinia'' (Ramalinaceae) from ...

'' was recognized by terminal dilated and fringed branches, and ''

Niebla arenaria ''Niebla arenaria'' is a fruticose lichen that grows along the Pacific Coast of North America in the fog regions of the northern peninsula of Baja California from near Colonet south to Morro Santo Domingo. The epithet, ''arenaria'', is in regard ...

'' by the antler-like terminal branches. ''Niebla pulchribarbara'' is recognized by its secondary metabolite, the only species in the genus to contain protocetraric acid. Only four specimens of ''Niebla pulchribarbara'' were cited by Spjut in his taxonomic revision of ''Niebla''. Three are at the

United States National Herbarium The United States National Herbarium is a collection of five million preserved plant specimens housed in the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It represents about 8% of the ...

of which two were collected by Spjut from a mesa above San Antonio del Mar, 25 March 1988 and 13 April 1990; the third was from Bahía de San Quintín, the type locality; it was collected by Velva E. Rudd in late January 1972 in regard to the Edward Palmer Project. She apparently found it with ''

Niebla palmeri ''Niebla palmeri'' is a fruticose lichen that infrequently occurs on sandy beaches or gravelly soil along the Pacific Coast from San Diego, California to mesas just north of Punta Baja, about 15 miles southeast of El Rosario, Baja California.Spj ...

'' (''Rudd 3340a''). Although ''Niebla pulchribarbara'' was considered distinct from ''N. josecuervoi'' by Rundel and Bowler when they described the species in 1972, Bowler and Janet Marsh in 2004 decided they were no longer distinct; ''N. pulchribarbara'' was included under a broad

species concept The species problem is the set of questions that arises when biologists attempt to define what a species is. Such a definition is called a species concept; there are at least 26 recognized species concepts. A species concept that works well for se ...

of ''N. josecuervoi'' in the ''Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert''.Bowler, P. and J. Marsh. 2004. ''Niebla''. ‘Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert 2’: 368–380. Inconsistencies as a result of broadening the genus and species concepts are reported.Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert: Book Review, Richard Spjut, web page, http://www.worldbotanical.com/lichen%20flora%20review.htm

References

External links

*World Botanical Associates, ''Niebla pulchribarbara'', retrieved 28 Dec 2014, http://www.worldbotanical.com/niebla_pulchribarbara.htm#pulchribarbara {{Taxonbar, from=Q20720436 Lichen species Lichens of North America Ramalinaceae Lichens described in 1973