''Cora benitoana'' is a species of basidiolichen in the family

Hygrophoraceae The Hygrophoraceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Originally conceived as containing white-spored, thick-gilled agarics (gilled mushrooms), including ''Hygrophorus'' and ''Hygrocybe'' species (the waxcaps or waxy caps), DNA evide ...

. Found in Mexico, it was formally described as a new species in 2019 by Bibiana Moncada, Rosa Emilia Pérez-Pérez, and

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist. He is a leading expert on foliicolous lichens–lichens that live on leaves. Life and career Born in Ulm in 1964, Lücking earned both his master's (1990) and PhD degree (1994) at the Univer ...

. The type specimen was collected in a

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

on Cerro Pelón (

Santiago Comaltepec Santiago Comaltepec is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico. It is part of the Ixtlán District in the Sierra Norte region. The municipality covers an area of 65.07 km² and is about 2,000 meters above sea level. The ...

, Oaxaca) at an altitude of . The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

honours Benito Pablo Juárez García, Mexican President from the state of Oaxaca. ''Cora benitoana'' is only known to occur in a small region in Oaxaca, where it grows as an

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

on tree trunks in a cloud forest, at elevations ranging from . It usually grows over

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es and liverworts, particularly from the genus ''

Frullania ''Frullania'' is the only genus of liverworts in family Frullaniaceae. It contains the following species: A *''Frullania aculeata'' Taylor, 1846 *''Frullania acutata'' Caspary, 1887 *''Frullania acutiloba'' Gerola, 1947 *'' Frullania akiyama ...

''.

References

benitoana Lichen species Lichens described in 2019 Lichens of Mexico Taxa named by Robert Lücking Basidiolichens {{Hygrophoraceae-stub