''Parmelina quercina'' is a species of

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 large family

Parmeliaceae The Parmeliaceae is a large and diverse family of Lecanoromycetes. With over 2700 species in 71 genera, it is the largest family of lichen-forming fungi. The most speciose genera in the family are the well-known groups: '' Xanthoparmelia'' ( 822 ...

. It is found in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

Taxonomy

The lichen was first

scientifically described A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

by German botanist

Carl Ludwig Willdenow Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was als ...

in 1787, as ''Lichen quercinus''. Finnish lichenologist

Edvard August Vainio Edvard August Vainio (born Edvard Lang; 5 August 185314 May 1929) was a Finnish lichenology, lichenologist. His early works on the lichens of Lapland (Finland), Lapland, his three-volume monograph on the lichen genus ''Cladonia'', and, in parti ...

considered it better classified in ''

Parmelia Parmelia may refer to: * Parmelia (barque), the vessel that in 1829 transported the first settlers of the British colony of Western Australia * ''Parmelia'' (fungus), a genus of lichens with global distribution * Parmelia, Western Australia Pa ...

'', which at the time was a large genus that contained most

foliose 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 ...

, or so-called "parmelioid" lichens.

Mason Hale Mason Ellsworth Hale, Jr. (September 23, 1929 – April 23, 1990) was one of the most prolific lichenologists of the 20th century. Many of his scholarly articles focused on the taxonomy of the family Parmeliaceae. Hale was one of the first liche ...

transferred it (and 40 other former ''Parmelia'' species) to the newly

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 ...

genus '' Parmelina'' in 1974. In 2007,

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analysis was used on specimens collected from around the world, which showed that the collection of specimens being called ''Parmelina quercina'' actually represented four distinct species. Not only were they genetically distinct, but they had distinctive morphological characteristics as well as unique geographic distributions. In addition to '' Parmelina carporrhizans'' (oceanic Europe and

Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of List of islands in the At ...

), and ''Parmelina quercina'', now restricted to continental Europe, two new species were proposed: '' Parmelina coleae'' for North America, and ''Parmelina elixii'' for Australia. The latter species has since been transferred to '' Austroparmelina''. Because Willdenow's original specimens of ''Parmelina quercina'', collected from "im Thiergarten & prope Tegel" in Berlin, have been lost, a

neotype 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 ...

from Germany was designated for 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 ...

in 2009.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17387058 Parmeliaceae Lichen species Lichens described in 1787 Lichens of Europe Taxa named by Carl Ludwig Willdenow