The Teloschistaceae are a large family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, although members occur predominantly in subtropical and temperate regions. Most members are lichens that either live on rock or on bark, but about 40 species are lichenicolous – meaning they are non-lichenised fungi that live on other lichens. Many members of the Teloschistaceae are readily identifiable by their vibrant orange to yellow hue, a result of their frequent anthraquinone content. The presence of these anthraquinone pigments, which confer protection from ultraviolet light, enabled this group to expand from shaded forest habitats to harsher environmental conditions of sunny and arid ecosystems during the Late Cretaceous.
Caloplaca is a lichen genus comprising a number of distinct species. Members of the genus are commonly called firedot lichen, jewel lichen. gold lichens, "orange lichens", but they are not always orange, as in the case of C. albovariegata. The distribution of this lichen genus is worldwide, extending from Antarctica to the high Arctic. It includes a portion of northern North America and the Russian High Arctic. There are about thirty species of Caloplaca in the flora of the British Isles.
Fulgogasparrea decipioides is a species of lichen in the family Teloschistaceae. It is found in Gangwon Province, South Korea. This species was originally described in 2011by Ulf Arup as a member of the large genus Caloplaca. The specific epithet decipioides refers to its similarity with Caloplaca decipiens. Arup and colleagues transferred it to genus Wetmoreana in 2013, before it was again transferred to Fulgogasparrea that same year, a genus in which it is the type species.
Gyalolechia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi belonging to the family Teloschistaceae. It contains 18 species of crustose lichens.
Calogaya is a genus of lichen-forming fungi belonging to the family Teloschistaceae. It has 19 species. The genus was circumscribed in 2013 by Ulf Arup, Ulrik Søchting, and Patrik Frödén. The generic name Calogaya honours Dr. Ester Gaya, a Spanish botanist from the University of Barcelona.
Flavoplaca is a genus of crust-like or scaly lichens in the family Teloschistaceae. It has 28 species with a mostly Northern Hemisphere distribution.
Igneoplaca is a genus in the subfamily Xanthorioideae of the family Teloschistaceae. It contains a single species, the crustose lichen Igneoplaca ignea.
Fulgogasparrea is a genus of crustose lichens in the subfamily Xanthorioideae of the family Teloschistaceae. It has five species. The genus was circumscribed in 2013, with Fulgogasparrea decipioides assigned as the type species; this lichen had originally been formally described as a species of Caloplaca, and then a couple of years later transferred to Wetmoreana. Six are credited with authorship of the genus: Sergey Kondratyuk, Jeong Min-hye, Ingvar Kärnefelt, John Alan Elix, Arne Thell, and Jae-Seoun Hur. The genus name alludes to the resemblance of the type species with both of the Teloschistaceae genera Fulgensia and Gasparrinia.
Huneckia is a genus of crustose lichens in the subfamily Caloplacoideae of the family Teloschistaceae. It has four species.
Golubkovia is a single-species fungal genus in the family Teloschistaceae. It contains the species Golubkovia trachyphylla, a rock-dwelling lichen that is found in Asia and North America. This crustose lichen has a yellow-orange thallus that is placodioid in form.
Wetmoreana is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has two crustose, saxicolous (rock-dwelling) species.
Niorma is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has six fruticose species, with N. derelicta assigned as the type species. The genus was originally proposed by Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in 1861, but this and several other genera he proposed were largely ignored by later contemporaries. As part of a molecular phylogenetics-led restructuring of the teloschistoid clade of the subfamily Xanthorioideae in the Teloschistaceae, Sergey Kondratyuk and colleagues resurrected the genus for use about 150 years later. Genus Niorma comprises what was previously known as a species complex centred around the taxon previously known as Teloschistes hypoglaucus.
Gondwania is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the subfamily Xanthorioideae of the family Teloschistaceae. It has three species. The genus was circumscribed by lichenologists Ulrik Søchting, Patrik Frödén, and Ulf Arup. The type species is G. cribrosa, a species that was first named Polycauliona cribrosa by Auguste-Marie Hue in 1909. The genus name refers to the ancestral supercontinent Gondwana.
Cerothallia yarraensis is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae. Found in Australia, it was formally described as a new species in 2009 by lichenologists Sergey Kondratyuk and Ingvar Kärnefelt, as Caloplaca yarraensis. Kondratyuk and colleagues transferred it to the genus Cerothallia in 2014.
Verrucoplaca is a monotypic fungal genus in the family Teloschistaceae. It contains the single species Verrucoplaca verruculifera, a widely distributed saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen that grows on coastal rocks.
Eilifdahlia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It contains three species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichens that occur in the Southern Hemisphere.
Franwilsia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has three species.
Franwilsia bastowii is a species of ramicolous (twig-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae. Found in Australia, it was formally described as a new species in 2009 by lichenologists Sergey Kondratyuk and Ingvar Kärnefelt. It was transferred to the genus Franwilsia in 2014. The species epithet bastowii honours the Scottish naturalist Richard Austin Bastow, who collected the type specimen in Mornington in 1901. The lichen is known to occur in Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria, where it grows on the twigs of various shrubs and trees.
Eilifdahlia dahlii is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae. Widely distributed in Southern Australia, it was formally described as a new species in 2009 by John Elix, Sergey Kondratyuk, and Ingvar Kärnefelt. The type specimen was collected by the first author in 1990 from Mountain Creek in Jimberoo State Forest, where it was found growing on a dead Callitris on a rocky ridge dominated by that tree. It has also been recorded growing on the branch and twig bark of Casuarina stricta, and species of Eucalyptus, Leptospermum, and Melaleuca. The species epithet dahlii honours the Norwegian lichenologist Eilif Dahl, "for his significant contribution to Australian lichenology". The taxon was transferred to Eilifdahlia in 2014, a newly circumscribed genus in which it is the type species.
