''Wetmoreana brouardii'' is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling),

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

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 ...

Taxonomy

It was first formally described as a new species in 1914 by French lichenologist Maurice Bouly de Lesdain, who classified it in the genus '' Placodium''. In 1931,

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 ...

transferred it to ''

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 ...

'', and it was known as a member of that genus for almost a century. In the 2000s several molecular phylogenetics studies showed that the large genus ''Caloplaca'' was polyphyletic, and several smaller genera were circumscribed to more appropriately reflect phylogenetic relationships in the Teloschistaceae. In 2015,

Sergey Kondratyuk Sergey Yakovlevich Kondratyuk ( uk, Сергій Якович Кондратюк) (born 17 May 1959) is a Ukrainian botanist specialising in lichenology. His research deals with the taxonomy, floristics, ecology and geography of lichens and lic ...

and colleagues proposed to move ''Caloplaca brouardii'' to the genus ''

Fulgogasparrea ''Fulgogasparrea'' is a genus of crustose lichens in the subfamily Xanthorioideae of the family Teloschistaceae. It has five species. The genus was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed in 2013, with ''Fulgogasparrea decipioides'' assigned as ...

''. Katrina Wilk and Ulrik Søchting transferred it to the genus ''

Wetmoreana ''Wetmoreana'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has two crustose, saxicolous (rock-dwelling) species. Taxonomy The genus was circumscribed in 2013 by Ulf Arup, Ulrik Søchting, and Patrik Frödén, with ''Wetm ...

'' in 2020.

Habitat and distribution

The lichen is widely distributed, having been found in Africa, North America, and South America (including the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from= , from2=Q10440427 Teloschistales Lichen species Lichens described in 1914 Lichens of Africa Lichens of the Galápagos Islands Lichens of North America Lichens of South America