''Umbilicaria hyperborea'', commonly known as blistered rock tripe, is a species of

foliose lichen A foliose lichen is a lichen with flat, leaf-like , which are generally not firmly bonded to the substrate on which it grows. It is one of the three most common growth forms of lichens. It typically has distinct upper and lower surfaces, each o ...

in the family

Umbilicariaceae The Umbilicariaceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the Ascomycota. Species of this family are known from a variety of climates, including temperate, boreal, austral, and warmer montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of moun ...

. It is widely distributed in arctic and alpine regions.

Taxonomy

It was first described as a new species by Swedish lichenologist

Erik Acharius Erik Acharius (10 October 1757 – 14 August 1819) was a Swedish botanist who pioneered the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of lichens and is known as the "father of lichenology". Acharius was famously the last pupil of Carl Linnaeus. Life Ac ...

in 1794 as ''Lichen hyperboreus''.

Georg Franz Hoffmann Georg Franz Hoffmann was a German Botany, botanist and lichenology, lichenologist. He was born on 13 January 1760 in Marktbreit, Germany, and died on 17 March 1826 in Moscow, Russia. Professional career After graduating from the University of Er ...

transferred it to the genus ''

Umbilicaria Rock tripe is the common name for various lichens of the genus ''Umbilicaria'' that grow on rocks. They are widely distributed, including on bare rock in Antarctica, and throughout northern parts of North America such as New England and the Rocky ...

'' in 1796. In a 2017

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analysis of the genus ''Umbilicaria'', ''U. hyperborea'' was proposed 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 ...

of the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

''Umbilicaria''. Closely related species include '' U. polyphylla'', '' U. iberica'', and '' U. arctica''.

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 ''Umbilicaria hyperborea'' ranges in colour from medium- to dark-brown, with texture of the upper surface more or less smooth or warty. The thallus undersurface is smooth, and there are not any

rhizine In lichens, rhizines are multicellular root-like structures arising mainly from the lower surface. A lichen with rhizines is termed rhizinate, while a lichen lacking rhizines is termed erhizinate. Rhizines serve only to anchor the lichen to their s ...

s. The disc-shaped

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 flat to convex and have multiple complex ridges.

Habitat and distribution

The lichen typically grows on rock in

arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

and

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical climate for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of alpine cli ...

s. It has, however, been recorded growing on acidic wood; specimens found in this

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (aquatic environment), the earthy material that exi ...

may have an altered

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

compared to those found on rock, such as stunted and faded thalli lacking apothecia. It is one of the most common ''Umbilicaria'' species in Arctic and adjacent Northern locations. ''Umbilicaria hyperborea'' has a very slow growth rate; in a study undertaken in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, it was measured as 0.3–0.4 mm per year over the time period 1933–1970.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10602173

hyperborea In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans (, ; ) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the Ecumene, known world. Their name appears to derive from the Greek , "beyond Boreas (god), Boreas" (the God of the north wind). Some schol ...

Lichen species Lichens of Europe Lichens of Subarctic America Lichens described in 1794 Taxa named by Erik Acharius Lichens of the Arctic