''Redonographa galapagoensis'' is a species of

saxicolous This glossary of mycology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to mycology, the study of fungi. Terms in common with other fields, if repeated here, generally focus on their mycology-specific meaning. Related terms can be found ...

(rock-dwelling),

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

in the family

Redonographaceae ''Redonographa'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the monogeneric family Redonographaceae. It has five species. Taxonomy In 2013, lichenologists Robert Lücking, Anders Tehler, and Helge Thorsten Lumbsch proposed the new family (biology ...

. Found in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

, it was formally described as a new species in 2013 by lichenologists Frank Bungartz and

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist, known for his extensive research on foliicolous lichens (lichens that live on leaves) and his significant contributions to the taxonomy, ecology, and biodiversity of fungi and lichens. He e ...

. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

was collected by the first author from Santiago Island. ''Redonographa galapagoensis'' grows along the coast underneath wind- and rain-sheltered, shaded overhangs. ''Redonographa galapagoensis'' was previously reported as ''Carbacanthographis saxiseda'', but it was found to represent an undescribed

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

. It appears to be

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the Galapagos Islands.

Description

The

thallus Thallus (: 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. A thallus usually names the entir ...

of ''Redonographa galapagoensis'' is and whitish gray, becoming yellowish white in the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

, with a smooth, surface. The

apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), 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. As ...

are prominent, rounded to shortly , and mostly unbranched. The are , and the are narrow and somewhat with thickened

septa SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

and lens-shaped to rounded . The lichen produces

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 ...

, and the thallus turns K+ (yellow, then red), forming needle-shaped crystals under the microscope. The species is recognized by its rather prominent, partially open ascomata, verrucose periphysoids, and narrow ascospores. Its verrucose periphysoids have a different appearance from the surface found in ''Carbacanthographis'', suggesting that the two genera are not closely related and do not have shared

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q108316245 Graphidales Lichen species Lichens described in 2013 Lichens of the Galápagos Islands Taxa named by Robert Lücking Taxa named by Frank Bungartz