| Platythecium commiscens | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Graphidales |
| Family: | Graphidaceae |
| Genus: | Platythecium |
| Species: | P. commiscens |
| Binomial name | |
| Platythecium commiscens Adaw. & Makhija (2005) | |
Platythecium commiscens is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling) script lichen in the family Graphidaceae. [1] Found in India, it was formally described as a new species in 2005 by Bharati Adawadkar and Urmila Vasudev Makhija. The type specimen was collected from Kollaimalai (Tamil Nadu). The lichen has a whitish-green to greenish coloured thallus that is encircled by a thin black prothallus. The ascomata are in the form of short, highly branched lirellae that are immersed in the thallus; the lirellae are intermingled and crowded together. The species epithet, derived from the Latin commiscens ("intermingling"), refers to this characteristic feature. [2]
Platythecium commiscens contains lichexanthone, a lichen product that causes the thallus of the lichen to fluoresce a yellow colour when lit with a long-wavelength UV light. It is this feature that distinguishes the species from the morphologically similar Platythecium parvicarpum . [2]
