''Phyllobaeis'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

-forming

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the family

Baeomycetaceae The Baeomycetales are an order (biology), order of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the subclass Ostropomycetidae, in the class Lecanoromycetes. It contains 8 family (biology), families, 33 genus, genera and about 170 species. As a result of molecu ...

. It has six species. The genus was

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

by lichenologists

Klaus Kalb Klaus Kalb (born 1942) is a German lichenologist and an authority on tropical lichens. Born in Nuremberg, he studied at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg before pursuing a career that significantly advanced the field of lichenology, parti ...

and Claudia Gierl in 1993, with '' Phyllobaeis imbricata'' assigned as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. ''Phyllobaeis'' differs from '' Baeomyces'' by the production of the secondary chemical

norstictic acid Norstictic acid is a depsidone produced as a secondary metabolites in lichens. The compound contains both an aldehyde carbonyl group and an adjacent hydroxyl In chemistry, a hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical fo ...

, as well as the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

distribution of its species. Most species have a

squamulose A squamulose lichen is a lichen that is composed of small, often overlapping "scales" called . If they are raised from the substrate and appear leafy, the lichen may appear to be a foliose lichen, but the underside does not have a "skin" (cortex) ...

thallus, but the most recent addition to the genus–the Chinese species '' P. crustacea''–has a

crustose Crustose is a Habit (biology), habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the Substrate (biology), substrates at all poin ...

thallus.

Species

*'' Phyllobaeis crustacea'' – China *'' Phyllobaeis erythrella'' *'' Phyllobaeis imbricata'' *'' Phyllobaeis linearis'' *'' Phyllobaeis rhodochroa'' *'' Phyllobaeis rubescens''

References

Baeomycetales Lichen genera Baeomycetales genera Taxa described in 1993 Taxa named by Klaus Kalb {{Lecanoromycetes-stub