''Niebla ramosissima'' is a rare

fruticose lichen A fruticose lichen is a form of lichen fungi that is characterized by a coral-like shrubby or bushy growth structure. It is formed from a symbiotic relationship of a photobiont such as green algae or less commonly cyanobacteria and one, two or mor ...

that grows on soil on

San Nicolas Island San Nicolas Island (Spanish: ''Isla de San Nicolás''; Tongva: ''Haraasnga'') is the most remote of the Channel Islands, off of Southern California, 61 miles (98 km) from the nearest point on the mainland coast. It is part of Ventura Coun ...

in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

of California.Spjut, R. W. 1996. ''Niebla'' and ''Vermilacinia'' (Ramalinaceae) from California and Baja California. Sida Bot. Misc. 14 The epithet, ''ramosissima'', is in reference to the very much branched thallus.

Distinguishing features

''Niebla ramosissima'' is distinguished by a mat-like, flaccid thallus, very much divided into numerous tangled narrow sublinear-prismatic branches to 16 cm across, the individual branches only 0.5–1.0 mm in diameter, and by containing divaricatic acid, with triterepenes. ''

Niebla juncosa ''Niebla juncosa'' is a fruticose lichen that grows on rock, stony soil and sand along the Pacific Coast of Baja California from Punta Banda to Morro Santo Dominogo.Spjut, R. W. 1996. ''Niebla'' and ''Vermilacinia'' (Ramalinaceae) from Californ ...

'', a species with the same chemistry and similarly shaped branches, which occurs on the

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 ...

peninsula, differs by its turgid thallus with larger branches, 2–5 mm in diameter, and further differs in their spreading to erect habit and in their elliptical shape in cross section.

Taxonomic history

''Niebla ramosissima'' was recognized as a result of undertaking a taxonomic revision of the genus in regard to developing a lichen flora of

, which began in 1986. A peer review of the manuscript in 1990 suggested that additional

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

collections be studied, especially of ''Niebla'' on the California mainland and in the

. Additional specimens were studied through loans obtained by the United States National Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Natural History, Botany Department) from the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

and from the

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Santa Barbara, California. It reconnects more than 150,000 people each year (including their 5,700 members) to nature indoors and outdoors. Nestled in nature, the museum ...

. ''Niebla ramossisima'' was discovered among the borrowed specimens (of ''Niebla''). The species is known only from the holo

type (biology) In biology, a type is a particular 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 anchor or centralizes the ...

. It was collected by Charis Bratt, 12 February 1993. ''Niebla ramosissima'' has also been included under an extremely broad interpretation of ''

Niebla homalea ''Niebla homalea'' is a species of fruticose lichen that grows on rocks in foggy areas along the Pacific Coast of North America, from Mendocino County, California south to Bahía de San Quintín on the main peninsula of Baja California, with an ...

'' based on the assumptions that morphological variation in ''Niebla'' is environmentally induced and that chemical variation represents chemo-syndrome variation; however, this broad interpretation of ''N. homalea'' and other related species has inconsistencies in the taxonomic treatment of the genus.Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert: Book Review, Richard Spjut, web page, retrieved 22 Dec 2014, http://www.worldbotanical.com/lichen%20flora%20review.htm

References

External links

*World Botanical Associates, ''Niebla halei'', retrieved 22 Dec 2014, http://www.worldbotanical.com/niebla_ramosissima.htm#ramosissima {{Taxonbar, from=Q20712123 Lichen species Lichens of North America Ramalinaceae Natural history of the Channel Islands of California Lichens described in 1996 Taxa named by Richard Wayne Spjut