Montanelia secwepemc

This species belongs to a group of brown parmelioid lichens in which species can be difficult to distinguish using external features alone. In the original description, M. secwepemc is characterized as esorediate (lacking soredia) while remaining otherwise similar in overall appearance to M. tominii as traditionally interpreted.^[2]

Within North America, the most similar look-alike discussed by the authors is Montanelia saximontana; based on their current sampling, M. secwepemc differs by the absence of soralia (the structures that produce soredia). Because the diagnostic evidence emphasized in the paper includes fixed nucleotide differences in the fungal ITS barcode region, DNA sequence data are part of what can reliably separate this species from close relatives in the M. tominii complex.^[2]

Montanelia secwepemc is saxicolous: all sampled specimens were collected on rock. The type locality is in central British Columbia (west of Fort Fraser) on a south-facing roadside boulder.^[2]

As documented in the paper, the species is known from four sites in northwestern North America: one in British Columbia, two in Yukon, and one in Alaska. The authors stressed that broader sampling will be needed to confirm whether the absence of soredia remains consistent across its range and to better define its limits relative to the sorediate M. saximontana.^[2]