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Leucodecton Fuscomarginatum
''Leucodecton fuscomarginatum'' is a species of lichen in the family Graphidaceae. Found in Sri Lanka, it was formally described as a new species in 2014 by lichenologists Gothamie Weerakoon, Robert Lücking and Helge Thorsten Lumbsch. The type specimen was collected from the Kikiliyamana Tea Estate (Nuwara Eliya, Central Province) at an altitude of . The lichen, which is known to occur only at the type locality, grows in disturbed vegetation. The specific epithet ''fuscomarginatum'' refers to the rims of the ascomata pores, which are typically brown in colour. ''Leucodecton fuscomarginatum'' has a shiny, smooth, light greenish to yellowish brown thallus measuring 50–100 μm thick with a thin cortex. The ascospores are muriform, ellipsoid in shape, and measure 30–40 by 10–12 μm. Secondary chemicals present in the lichen include stictic acid, constictic acid Constictic acid is a chemical compound of the depsidone class. It was first isolated in 1968 from l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gothamie Weerakoon
Gothamie Weerakoon ( si, ගෝතමී වීරකෝන්) is a Sri Lankan-based botanist, lichenologist and environmentalist. Early life and education After completing her primary education at the Devi Balika Vidyalaya in Colombo, she attended the University of Colombo, completing her PhD in 2013 at the Sri Jayawardenepura University. She emerged as the most active Sri Lankan lichen researcher. Career She has conducted research on South Asian lichens, discovering over 100 new species endemic to Sri Lanka. Some of the species she has discovered include ''Heterodermia queesnberryi'' and ''Polymeridium fernandoi''. In 2015, she wrote ''Fascinating Lichens of Sri Lanka'', which provides facts about lichen species endemic to Sri Lanka. She currently works as the senior curator of Lichens and Slime Moulds at the Natural History Museum of London and also with tea brand, Dilmah. Awards and recognition She is the first South Asian woman scientist to hold the Annual Grante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cortex (botany)
In botany, a cortex is an outer layer of a stem or root in a vascular plant, lying below the epidermis but outside of the vascular bundles. The cortex is composed mostly of large thin-walled parenchyma cells of the ground tissue system and shows little to no structural differentiation. The outer cortical cells often acquire irregularly thickened cell walls, and are called collenchyma cells. Plants Stems and branches In the three dimensional structure of herbaceous stems, the epidermis, cortex and vascular cambium form concentric cylinders around the inner cylindrical core of pith. Some of the outer cortical cells may contain chloroplasts, giving them a green color. They can therefore produce simple carbohydrates through photosynthesis. In woody plants, the cortex is located between the periderm (bark) and the vascular tissue (phloem, in particular). It is responsible for the transportation of materials into the central cylinder of the root through diffusion and may al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxa Named By Helge Thorsten Lumbsch
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and given a particular ranking, especially if and when it is accepted or becomes established. It is very common, however, for taxonomists to remain at odds over what belongs to a taxon and the criteria used for inclusion. If a taxon is given a formal scientific name, its use is then governed by one of the nomenclature codes specifying which scientific name is correct for a particular grouping. Initial attempts at classifying and ordering organisms (plants and animals) were set forth in Carl Linnaeus's system in ''Systema Naturae'', 10th edition (1758), as well as an unpublished work by Bernard and Antoine Laurent de Jussieu. The idea of a unit-based system of biological classification was first made widely available in 1805 in the int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lichens Described In 2014
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Introduction to Lichens – An Alliance between Kingdoms . University of California Museum of Paleontology. Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in many colors, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not plants. They may have tiny, leafless branches ( fruticose); flat leaf-like structures ( foliose); grow crust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lichens Of Sri Lanka
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Introduction to Lichens – An Alliance between Kingdoms . University of California Museum of Paleontology. Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in many colors, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not s. They may have tiny, leafless branches (); flat leaf-like structures ( [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lichen Species
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Introduction to Lichens – An Alliance between Kingdoms . University of California Museum of Paleontology. Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in many colors, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not s. They may have tiny, leafless branches ( fruticose); flat leaf-like structures ( [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constictic Acid
Constictic acid is a chemical compound of the depsidone class. It was first isolated in 1968 from lichen of the genus ''Usnea''. It has since been found in many other lichen genera including ''Menegazzia'', '' Crespoa'', and ''Xanthoparmelia ''Xanthoparmelia'' (commonly known as green rock shields or rock-shield lichens) is a genus of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, ''Xanthoparmelia'' is syn ...''. References Lactones Benzaldehydes Heterocyclic compounds with 4 rings Phenols Methoxy compounds Benzodioxepines Lichen products {{organic-compound-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stictic Acid
Stictic acid is an aromatic organic compound, a product of secondary metabolism in some species of lichens. Stictic acid is the subject of preliminary biomedical research. Stictic acid has cytotoxic and apoptotic effects ''in vitro''. Computational studies suggest stictic acid may also stimulate p53 p53, also known as Tumor protein P53, cellular tumor antigen p53 (UniProt name), or transformation-related protein 53 (TRP53) is a regulatory protein that is often mutated in human cancers. The p53 proteins (originally thought to be, and often s ... reactivation. References Phenolic acids Phenol ethers Oxygen heterocycles Lactones Lichen products {{aromatic-compound-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secondary Metabolite
Secondary metabolites, also called specialised metabolites, toxins, secondary products, or natural products, are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, or reproduction of the organism. Instead, they generally mediate ecological interactions, which may produce a selective advantage for the organism by increasing its survivability or fecundity. Specific secondary metabolites are often restricted to a narrow set of species within a phylogenetic group. Secondary metabolites often play an important role in plant defense against herbivory and other interspecies defenses. Humans use secondary metabolites as medicines, flavourings, pigments, and recreational drugs. The term secondary metabolite was first coined by Albrecht Kossel, a 1910 Nobel Prize laureate for medicine and physiology in 1910. 30 years later a Polish botanist Friedrich Czapek described secondary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellipsoid
An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the zero set of a polynomial of degree two in three variables. Among quadric surfaces, an ellipsoid is characterized by either of the two following properties. Every planar cross section is either an ellipse, or is empty, or is reduced to a single point (this explains the name, meaning "ellipse-like"). It is bounded, which means that it may be enclosed in a sufficiently large sphere. An ellipsoid has three pairwise perpendicular axes of symmetry which intersect at a center of symmetry, called the center of the ellipsoid. The line segments that are delimited on the axes of symmetry by the ellipsoid are called the ''principal axes'', or simply axes of the ellipsoid. If the three axes have different lengths, the figure is a triaxial ellipsoi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
