''Upretia squamulosa'' 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),

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) ...

(scaly)

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 ...

in the family

Teloschistaceae The Teloschistaceae are a large family (biology), family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class (taxonomy), class Lecanoromycetes in the division (botany), division Ascomycota. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, althoug ...

. It was identified as a new species in 2019 from specimens collected in the arid valley of the

Jinsha River The Jinsha River (, Classical Tibetan, Tibetan: Dri Chu, འབྲི་ཆུ, ) or Lu river, is the Chinese name for the upper stretches of the Yangtze River. It flows through the provinces of the PRC, provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yu ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

, China.

Taxonomy

The lichen was

scientifically described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it diffe ...

as a new species in 2019 by Yan Yun Zhang and Li Song Wang. The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

refers to its (scaly)

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 ...

. 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 ...

of ''Upretia squamulosa'' was collected in

Province, China, specifically in

Huize County Huize County (, old name: ''Dongchuan 東川'') is a county-level city, under the jurisdiction of Qujing City, Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. Demography The city has grown considerably over the past 20 years. It has 871,200 inhabit ...

, Zhehai Town, at an elevation of . The genus ''

Upretia ''Upretia'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has three species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichens. ''Upretia'' is characterised by its small and narrow, rod-shaped . The distribution of the genu ...

'' is a recent classification within the subfamily Caloplacoideae of the family

Molecular phylogenetics 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 ...

placed ''Upretia squamulosa'' in a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

close to ''Upretia''. This genus, initially proposed on the basis of specimens collected from India, is closely related to the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus ''Ioplaca'', found in high elevations in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

Description

''Upretia squamulosa'' is characterised by its squamulose, thallus that ranges in colour from greyish green to brown. The are convex, sometimes resembling a bullet shape, with their apex often free from the . This species has apothecia, which are pale brown to brown in colour, and ascospores. The thallus and apothecia contain gyrophoric and

lecanoric acid Lecanoric acid is a chemical produced by several species of lichen.ubChem - Lecanoric acid"> Lecanoric acid is classified as a polyphenol and a didepside, and it functions as an antioxidant. It is an ester of orsellinic acid with itself. The acid ...

s, but no

anthraquinone Anthraquinone, also called anthracenedione or dioxoanthracene, is an aromatic hydrocarbon, aromatic organic compound with formula . Several isomers exist but these terms usually refer to 9,10-anthraquinone (IUPAC: 9,10-dioxoanthracene) wherein th ...

s are found in the apothecia. The thallus of ''Upretia squamulosa'' is

and squamulose, without an margin, and can grow up to in diameter. The upper surface is non-, smooth, and without cracks. The

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in oth ...

of the apothecia is colourless and the is pale brown. The species does not form

pycnidia A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or inve ...

Habitat and distribution

''Upretia squamulosa'' thrives in arid environments, particularly on rocky , at elevations ranging from . It has been found exclusively in China's Yunnan Province. The species is adapted to the hot and dry climate of the Jinsha-jiang River valley, which is dominated by

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s and hosts a variety of crustose and squamulose lichens.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q108458261 Teloschistales Lichen species Lichens of China Lichens described in 2019