Canoparmelia Explained

Canoparmelia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Parmeliaceae. The widespread genus contains about 35 species. Canoparmelia, a segregate of the parmelioid lichen genus Pseudoparmelia, was circumscribed by John Elix and Mason Hale in 1986.

Description

Canoparmelia lichens have grey or rarely yellow-green thalli containing the secondary chemicals atranorin and chloroatranorin, or rarely usnic acid, in the cortex. The thallus is made of more or less rotund lobes that are 3.0–5.0 mm wide and lack cilia; the medulla is white. The underside of the thallus is black or brown with naked brown margins and simple rhizines of the same colour. Canoparmelia produces small ellipsoid ascospores that measure 10–14 by 6–8 μm. The conidia are fusiform (spindle-shaped) or bifusiform, measuring 7–10 μm long.

Species

The taxon once named Canoparmelia amazonica has been analysed molecularly and shown to belong in the genus Parmelinella.