Lobariella nashii
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| Lobariella nashii | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Peltigerales |
| Family: | Peltigeraceae |
| Genus: | Lobariella |
| Species: | L. nashii |
| Binomial name | |
| Lobariella nashii B.Moncada & Lücking (2013) | |
Lobariella nashii is a species of foliose lichen in the family Peltigeraceae.[1] This rare leafy lichen forms extensive mats up to 20 cm (8 in) across on tree trunks in high-elevation cloud forests and is distinguished by its abundant, finely branched, scale-like reproductive structures that give it a distinctively tufted appearance. Known from only two collections in upper montane rainforest, it represents one of the most recently evolved lineages within its genus and appears to be extremely rare.
Lobariella nashii was described in 2013 by Bibiana Moncada and Robert Lücking, who named the species for the American lichenologist Thomas Hawkes Nash III. It can be distinguished from the morphologically similar L. stenroosiae by its narrow, regularly branched phyllidia—leaf-like vegetative propagules that cover much of the thallus surface.[2]
Genetic analysis using three gene regions shows that L. nashii represents an early-diverging branch, separate from a closely related group that includes L. flavomedullosa, L. subcrenulata, and the Hawaiian species L. flynniana and L. sandwicensis, highlighting its isolated evolutionary position within the genus. Relaxed-clock dating places the diversification of the L. nashii + Hawaiian clade within the past roughly 10 million years, making it one of the most recently evolved lineages in Lobariella.[3]