''Cora pikynasa'' is a species of

basidiolichen Basidiolichens are lichenized members of the Basidiomycota, a much smaller group of lichens than the far more common ascolichens in the Ascomycota. In arctic, alpine, and temperate forests, the most common basidiolichens are in the agaric genus ...

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 evi ...

. Found in Colombia, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Jean-Marc Torres, Bibiana Moncada, 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

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 ...

''pikynasa'' derives from ''pi'ky nasa'', a

Nasa The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

indigenous word meaning "community work", which references the help given to the authors by the Nasa people in gaining access to the collection site. The lichen is known to occur only at the

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

in the Vereda Territorios Nacionales ( Rioblanco, Tolima), which is at an altitude of . Here it grows as an epiphyte on

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrowe ...

shrubs.

References

pikynasa Lichen species Lichens described in 2016 Lichens of Colombia Taxa named by Robert Lücking Basidiolichens {{Hygrophoraceae-stub