''Phlyctis lueckingii'' is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling)

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Phlyctidaceae The Phlyctidaceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the order Gyalectales. Species in this family have primarily a tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer ...

. Found in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, it was formally described as a new species by

Gothamie Weerakoon Gothamie Weerakoon ( si, ගෝතමී වීරකෝන්) is a Sri Lankan-based botanist, lichenologist and environmentalist. Early life and education After completing her primary education at the Devi Balika Vidyalaya in Colombo, she att ...

and

André Aptroot André Aptroot (Heemskerk, 1961) is a Dutch mycologist and lichenologist. In 1993 he did his PhD at the University of Utrecht under the supervision of Robbert Gradstein (nl). His dissertation was titled "Systematic studies on pyrenocarpous li ...

in 2016. The type was collected on the Dothalugala mountain, where it was found in a

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

on the smooth bark of a tree. The species epithet honours lichenologist

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist. He is a leading expert on foliicolous lichens–lichens that live on leaves. Life and career Born in Ulm in 1964, Lücking earned both his master's (1990) and PhD degree (1994) at the Univer ...

. Characteristics of the lichen include its relatively large (0.2–0.3 mm in diameter), grey apothecia that occur in groups, and its fusiform (spindle-shaped)

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 ...

s that have 7

septa The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

and measure 27–29 by 5.5–6.5

μm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...

. 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 ...

contains the lichen product

norstictic acid Norstictic acid is a depsidone produced as a secondary metabolites in lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.

References

Gyalectales Lichen species Lichens described in 2016 Taxa named by André Aptroot Taxa named by Gothamie Weerakoon Lichens of Sri Lanka {{Lecanoromycetes-stub