Notoparmelia is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. It includes 18 species that grow on bark and rocks, and are mostly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The genus was created in 2014 as a segregate of Parmelia.
Notoparmelia was circumscribed by lichenologists Ana Crespo, Zuzana Ferencová, and Pradeep Divakar in 2014. The genus includes a group of mostly Australasian species previously placed in Parmelia. Although the group of species had previously been shown to form a monophyleticlineage in Parmelia,[1] they had not at that time been examined sufficiently to identify any morphological features that could be used to distinguish them from Parmelia. Subsequent study of the anatomy and fine morphology of the ascomata and ascospores revealed differences that could be used as diagnostic characters to define a new genus for this lineage of species.[2]
Notoparmelia differs morphologically from Parmelia species by having thinner ascospore walls and a proper exciple (a layer of hyphae directly surrounding and derived from the ascocarp itself, not including any thalline material) that is reduced to one layer without zonation and comprising exclusively loosely branched large hyphae embedded in an abundant polysaccharide matrix. The proper exciple is surrounded by a continuous layer of algae.[2] The genus name combines the Greeknǒto- ("southern", "south" – referring to its Southern Hemisphere distribution) with Parmelia.[2]
The name Aspidelia is an earlier legitimate generic name for the genus that was overlooked when Notoparmelia was published.[3] The authors later formally proposed Aspidelia for rejection so that Notoparmelia could be retained.[4] In 2017, however, the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi rejected the proposal, preferring that priority should take precedence.[5] Despite this, as of 2020, no proposal had been made to transfer Notoparmelia species to Aspidelia, and Notoparmelia is used in recent reviews of fungal classification.[6][7]
Description
Notoparmelia species have a foliose thallus that is adnate (attached to the substratum ) to loosely adnate (loosely attached to nearly free growing). It is irregularly lobate (having lobes ), with lobes measuring 2.0–7.0mm wide with rounded tips. Pseudocyphellae are usually effigurate (having marginal areoles that are extended and arranged radially). Rhizines are squarrosely branched (branching at right angles). The apothecia are stipitate or nearly so, and split radially with age. The proper exciple is cup-shaped, with a single thick (30–70μm) hyaline layer. Unlike other parmelioids, it is not differentiated into three layers. Ascospores are ellipsoid, typically measuring 11.5–16.5 by 7.5–10μm with a spore wall that is less than 1μm thick. In contrast, other parmelioids have spore walls greater than 1μm thick.[2]
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