Life habit: lichenized; Thallus: foliose, ± circular, lobate; lobes: narrow, sublinear, contiguous, rarely imbricate; apices: truncate, eciliate; upper surface: gray, plane to foveolate, shiny or dull, strongly white, simple or reticulate maculae, pruinose or not; with or without isidia, soralia, or lobules; pseudocyphellae common, frequently elongated and irregularly effigurate (developing from the maculae); upper cortex: non-pored epicortex, prosoplechtenchymatous; medulla: white, loosely packed; cell walls containing isolichenan; photobionts: primary one a Trebouxia, secondary photobiont absent; lower surface: black, attached by simple, furcated or squarrose, black rhizines; cyphellae, pseudocyphellae and tomentum absent; Ascomata: apothecial, laminal on thallus, orbicular, cup-shaped, sessile to pedicellate; margin: prominent with thalloid rim; disc: usually pale to dark brown, imperforate; exciple: gray or hyaline, epithecium: brown or brownish yellow; hypothecium: hyaline; asci: lecanoral, wall layers thickened; apex: amyloid, with wide, divergent axial body; c. 8-spored; ascospores: simple, ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, 11-15 x 6-9 µm but larger in many Asian species; wall thin, hyaline, not amyloid; Conidiomata: absent or present, pycnidia laminal or marginal, immersed or emergent sessile; conidia: cylindrical, rarely bifusiform, 5-8 x 1 µm; Secondary metabolites: upper cortex atranorin and chloroatranorin (rarely usnic acid accessory); medulla some combination of orcinol depsides or depsidones, ß-orcinol depsides or depsidones or aliphatic acids; Geography: predominately temperate/boreal to arctic/alpine; Substrate: mostly bark, non-calciferous rock, mosses or humus. 

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Lichen / parasite
apothecium of Abrothallus parmeliarum parasitises thallus of Parmelia

Lichen / associate
Loricula elegantula is associated with Parmelia
Other: major host/prey

Lichen / pathogen
colony of Refractohilum anamorph of Refractohilum achromaticum infects and damages thallus of Parmelia

Lichen / parasite
pycnidium of Vouauxiomyces coelomycetous anamorph of Vouauxiomyces santessonii parasitises thallus of Parmelia

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
                                        

Specimen Records:	25	Public Records:	8
Specimens with Sequences:	27	Public Species:	2
Specimens with Barcodes:	0	Public BINs:	0
Species:	3
Species With Barcodes:	0

Access Published & Released Data: Download FASTA File

Collection Sites: world map showing specimen collection locations for Parmelia