''Caloplaca obamae'' is a species of

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichens consists of a cor ...

in the fungus genus ''

Caloplaca ''Caloplaca'' is a lichen genus comprising a number of distinct species. Members of the genus are commonly called firedot lichen, jewel lichen.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, gold lichens, "or ...

''. It is the first species to be named in honor of

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

. ''C. obamae'' was discovered in 2007 by Kerry Knudsen on Santa Rosa Island in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

and published in March 2009. Knudsen stated that he chose to honor Obama for "his support of science and scientific education" and wrote the manuscript for publication of the species in the time between Obama's election and his inauguration.ScienceDaily. 16 April 2009
New Species Of Lichen Named After President Barack Obama
Accessed online 16 April 2009.Knudsen, K. 2009
''Caloplaca obamae'', a new species from Santa Rosa Island, California
''Opuscula Philolichenum'', 6: 37–40.

Description

''Caloplaca obamae'' produces a thin

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or " twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms ...

arranged in orange granules that are 30–50

μm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Uni ...

in diameter and form patches that can be 0.2–1 mm in diameter, ultimately covering an area on the soil up to 6–7 cm². The algal layer is discontinuous and usually 50–100 μm thick under the granule patches. It appears that ''C. obamae'' is sterile and does not produce

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera o ...

s; the

apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...

that were present in specimens may belong to an associated species, '' Caloplaca ludificans''. ''Caloplaca obamae'' is similar in appearance to ''

Caloplaca xanthostigmoidea ''Caloplaca'' is a lichen genus comprising a number of distinct species. Members of the genus are commonly called firedot lichen, jewel lichen.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, gold lichens, "or ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

''Caloplaca obamae'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the northern side of Santa Rosa Island on clay soils of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

marine terraces. It has not yet been discovered on mainland California,

San Miguel Island San Miguel Island ( Chumash: ''Tuqan'') is the westernmost of California's Channel Islands, located across the Santa Barbara Channel in the Pacific Ocean, within Santa Barbara County, California. San Miguel is the sixth-largest of the eight Ch ...

, or Sandy Point on Santa Rosa Island. It occurs from Bechers Bay to Soledad Canyon on Santa Rosa in grasslands that have been heavily grazed for over a hundred years. Introduced animal populations are being removed from the island and it has been suggested that ''C. obamae'', which had nearly gone extinct when cattle ranches were active, will make a comeback on the island. It is commonly found growing with other

terricolous lichen A terricolous lichen is a lichen that grows on the soil as a substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is at ...

species and

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants ( embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q983134 obamae Lichen species Lichens of the Southwestern United States Species named after Barack Obama Lichens described in 2009 Fungi without expected TNC conservation status

Description

Distribution and habitat

See also

References