''Punctelia imbricata'' 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 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 ...

. Found in Brazil, it was described as a new species in 2009 by lichenologists Marcello Marcelli, Patrícia Jungbluth, and John Alan Elix. The

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 ...

was collected in the

Paulista Paulista is a municipality in Pernambuco, Brazil, with a population of 334,376 as of 2020. It has the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of the Recife metropolitan area. It is the birthplace of footballer Rivaldo and is also famous for its beac ...

municipality of

São Paulo State SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...

. There it was found growing on the trunk of a

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...

tree, which was in a shaded and humid location in an orchard. The lichen has a greenish-grey

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 ...

measuring wide, with a smooth upper surface that becomes a bit wrinkled in age; the lower surface is black. ''Punctelia imbricata'' contains trace amounts of atranorin and

lecanoric acid Lecanoric acid is a chemical produced by several species of lichen.ubChem - Lecanoric acid"> Lecanoric acid is classified as a polyphenol and a didepside and it functions as an antioxidant. The acid is named after the lichen ''Lecanora''. The acid ...

, minor amounts of orcinyl lecanorate, and

gyrophoric acid Gyrophoric acid is a depside that can be found in the lichen ''Cryptothecia rubrocincta'' and in ''Xanthoparmelia pokomyi''. It can also be found in most of the species of the '' Actinogyra'', ''Lasallia'', and ''Umbilicaria'' genera Genus ( p ...

as the major secondary metabolite in the medulla. 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 ...

''imbricata'' refers to the "imbricate" lobules (i.e. having overlapping edges).

References

imbricata This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...

Lichen species Lichens described in 2009 Lichens of Brazil Taxa named by John Alan Elix {{Parmeliaceae-stub