Hypotrachyna brasiliana (Nyl.) Hale

Hypotrachyna brasiliana

Parmelia brasiliana Nylander, 1885:611. [Type collection: Organ Mountains, Brazil, Weddell (H, lectotype; P, isolectotype).]

Parmelia glaziovii Müller Argau, 1889:354. [Type collection: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Glaziou 16670 (G, lectotype).]

Thallus loosely adnate on rocks, coriaceous, ashy white, 6–20 cm in diameter; lobe sublinear, divaricate, 1–4 mm wide; upper surface plane, continuous, irregularly wrinkled and cracked with age; lower surface sparsely to moderately rhizinate, rhizines sparsely dichotomously branched. Apothecia common, adnate, 2–5 mm in diameter; spores 4μ–6μ × 8μ–10μ.

CHEMISTRY.—Cortex K−, medulla K−, C−, P+ red (lichexanthone and protocetraric acid).

DISTRIBUTION.—Southeastern Brazil.

HABITAT.—On rocks at open rocky slopes at 1000–2300 m elevation.

Hypotrachyna brasiliana is a species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It was originall described by William Nylander in 1885 as a species of Parmelia. Mason Hale transferred it to the new genus Hypotrachyna in 1975. The lichen is found in the mountains of southeastern Brazil at elevations of 800–2,400 m (2,600–7,900 ft), where it grows on siliceous rocks, or on mosses over rocks.