''Squamulea squamosa'' is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling),

squamulose lichen A squamulose lichen is a lichen that is composed of small, often overlapping "scales" called squamules. If they are raised from the substrate and appear leafy, the lichen may appear to be a foliose lichen, but the underside does not have a "ski ...

in the family

Teloschistaceae The Teloschistaceae are a large family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The family, estimated to contain over 1800 species, was extensively revised in 2013, including the creation o ...

. Found in southwestern North America, it was first formally described by Maurice Bouly de Lesdain in 1933, as ''Placodium squamosum''.

Alexander Zahlbruckner Alexander Zahlbruckner (31 May 1860, Svätý Jur – 1938, Vienna) was an Austrian- Hungarian botanist who specialized in the study of lichens. Johann Babtist Zahlbruckner, an earlier Austrian botanist, was his grandfather. From 1878 to 1883 ...

proposed a transfer to genus ''

Caloplaca ''Caloplaca'' is a lichen genus comprising a number of distinct species. Members of the genus are commonly called firedot lichen, jewel lichen.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, gold lichens, "ora ...

'' in 1940, and the lichen was known as a member of that genus for more than seven decades. Ulf Arup and colleagues transferred 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 ...

to the genus ''

Squamulea ''Squamulea'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has 15 species. The genus was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed in 2013 by Ulf Arup, Ulrik Søchting, and Patrik Frödén, with ''Squamulea subsoluta'' ass ...

'' in 2013, following a

molecular phylogenetics 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 ...

-based restructuring of the family Teloschistaceae.

References

Teloschistales Lichen species Lichens described in 1933 Lichens of North America Taxa named by Maurice Bouly de Lesdain {{Teloschistales-stub