Parmelia is a genus of medium to large foliose lichens. It has a global distribution, extending from the Arctic to the Antarctic continent but concentrated in temperate regions. There are about 40 species in Parmelia. In recent decades, the once large genus Parmelia has been divided into a number of smaller genera according to thallus morphology and phylogenetic relatedness.
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, Usnea, Parmotrema, and Hypotrachyna.
Irwin M. Brodo is an emeritus scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is an authority on the identification and biology of lichens. Irwin Brodo was honored in 1994 with an Acharius Medal presented to him by the International Association for Lichenology.
Pseudephebe is a genus of fruticose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. It contains three species that grow on rocks.
Hypogymnia is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. They are commonly known as tube lichens, bone lichens, or pillow lichens. Most species lack rhizines that are otherwise common in members of the Parmeliaceae, and have swollen lobes that are usually hollow. Other common characteristics are relatively small spores and the presence of physodic acid and related lichen products. The lichens usually grow on the bark and wood of coniferous trees.
Melanohalea is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. It contains 30 mostly Northern Hemisphere species that grow on bark or on wood. The genus is characterized by the presence of pseudocyphellae, usually on warts or on the tips of isidia, a non-pored epicortex and a medulla containing depsidones or lacking secondary compounds. Melanohalea was circumscribed in 2004 as a segregate of the morphologically similar genus Melanelia.
Gowardia is a genus of medium-sized, greyish hair lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. It is a circumpolar genus, mainly restricted to arctic-alpine habitats in northern Canada, Europe, and Russia.
Alectoria is a genus of fruticose lichens belonging to the family Parmeliaceae.
Bryoria hengduanensis is a species of lichen of the genus Bryoria. It was described as new to science in 2003 by lichenologists Li-Song Wang and Hiroshi Harada. It is found in the Hengduan Mountains of southern China, where it grows on twigs and branches in coniferous forests at elevations of 3,000–4,000 metres (9,800–13,100 ft). The Hengduan Mountains is a region of high Bryoria biodiversity, as 24 species are known from this area.
Teuvo ("Ted") Tapio Ahti is a Finnish botanist and lichenologist. He has had a long career at the University of Helsinki that started in 1963, and then following his retirement in 1997, at the Botanical Museum of the Finnish Museum of Natural History. Known as a specialist of the lichen family Cladoniaceae, Ahti has published more than 280 scientific publications. A Festschrift was dedicated to him in 1994, and in 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Acharius Medal for lifetime contributions to lichenology.
Melanohalea zopheroa is a species of lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It was first formally described in 1977 by Ted Esslinger as Parmelia zopheroa. A year later, he transferred it to the new genus Melanelia, which he created to contain the brown Parmeliae species. In 2004, after early molecular phylogenetic evidence showed that Melanelia was not monophyletic, Melanohalea was circumscribed by lichenologists Oscar Blanco, Ana Crespo, Pradeep K. Divakar, Esslinger, David L. Hawksworth and H. Thorsten Lumbsch, and M. zopheroa was transferred to it. The lichen has a disjunct distribution, as it is found in South America (Chile) and in New Zealand.
Bryoria implexa is a species of horsehair lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.
Bryoria nadvornikiana, commonly known as the spiny grey horsehair lichen or the blonde horsehair lichen, is a species of horsehair lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.
Bryoria subcana is a species of horsehair lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It is found in North America and Europe.
Bryoria kockiana is a species of horsehair lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It is found in North America, where it grows from the branches of conifer trees.
Veli Johannes Paavo Bartholomeus Räsänen was a Finnish lichenologist.
Raesaenenia is a fungal genus in the large family Parmeliaceae. It is a monotypic genus, containing the single lichenicolous fungus Raesaenenia huuskonenii, which parasitises lichens of genus Bryoria in the Northern Hemisphere.
Gowardia nigricans, commonly known as the gray hair lichen or gray witch's hair, is a species of fruticose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.
Gowardia arctica is a species of terricolous (ground-dwelling), fruticose (bushy) lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. Found in arctic regions of Northern Canada and Russia, it was formally described as a new species in 2009 by Pekka Halonen, Leena Myllys, Saara Velmala, and Heini Hyvärinen. The type specimen was collected from Banks Island in Swan Lake ; here, at an elevation of 100 m (330 ft), it was found growing among mesic mountain heath. It also occurs along the Arctic Ocean coast of Russia. The lichen is richly branched, black to black-brown in colour, and reaches up to 13 cm (5.1 in) in diameter. It contains alectorialic acid and two other unknown lichen products.
