''Fuscidea texana'' is a species of

saxicolous A saxicolous lichen is a lichen that grows on rock. The prefix "sax" from the Latin means "rock" or "stone". Characteristics Saxicolous lichens exhibit very slow growth rates. They may develop on rock substrates for long periods of time, giv ...

(rock-dwelling),

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 family

Fuscideaceae Fuscideaceae is a family of fungi in the order Umbilicariales The Umbilicariales are an order of lichenized fungi in the subclass Umbilicariomycetidae, class Lecanoromycetes. It contains five families: Elixiaceae, Fuscideaceae, Ophioparmaceae ...

. Found in the United States, it was formally described as a new species in 2008 by lichenologist Alan Fryday. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was collected by

Clifford Wetmore Clifford may refer to: People *Clifford (name), an English given name and surname, includes a list of people with that name *William Kingdon Clifford * Baron Clifford *Baron Clifford of Chudleigh * Baron de Clifford *Clifford baronets * Clifford f ...

from the north slope of

Emory Peak Emory Peak, located in Big Bend National Park, is the highest peak in the Chisos Mountains and the highest in Brewster County. The peak is named for William H. Emory, the chief surveyor of the U.S. Boundary Survey team of 1852. From the Chisos B ...

Big Bend National Park Big Bend National Park is an American national park located in West Texas, bordering Mexico. The park has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States, and was named after ...

(

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

) at an elevation of . The pale pinkish-grey

areolate Lichens are composite organisms made up of multiple species: a fungal partner, one or more photosynthetic partners, and sometimes a basidiomycete yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their ...

thalli 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 wer ...

of ''Fuscidea texana'' are up to in diameter, and have a distinct margin. Its

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 are thick-walled and measure 8–9 by 4.5–5.5

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 ...

. The lichen contains

norstictic acid Norstictic acid is a depsidone produced as a secondary metabolite Secondary metabolites, also called specialised metabolites, toxins, secondary products, or natural products, are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, fu ...

, a

secondary compound 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 nor ...

. ''Fuscidea texana'' is only known from the original type collection, dating from 1970. 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 ...

refers to its

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

References

Umbilicariales Lichen species Lichens described in 2008 Lichens of the South-Central United States Fungi without expected TNC conservation status Taxa named by Alan Fryday {{Lecanoromycetes-stub