Astrothelium ecuadorense | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Ascomycota |
Class: | Dothideomycetes |
Order: | Trypetheliales |
Family: | Trypetheliaceae |
Genus: | Astrothelium |
Species: | A. ecuadorense
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Binomial name | |
Astrothelium ecuadorense
Aptroot (2016)
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Astrothelium ecuadorense is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae. [1] Found in Ecuador, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected by Harrie Sipman in the Estacion Cientifico San Francisco in the South Ecuadorian Andes ( Zamora-Chinchipe Province); there, it was found in a mountainous rainforest growing on smooth tree bark. The lichen has a smooth and shiny, pale yellowish-green thallus with a cortex but lacking a prothallus, covering areas of up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter. No lichen products were detected in the collected specimens. [2] The main characteristics of the lichen distinguishing it from others in Astrothelium are the lack of pseudocyphellae on the thallus, and the solitary, exposed, black ascomata. [3] It is also one of the few Astrothelium species with only two spores in its asci. [2]