Culbersonia

Short description: Lichen genus in the family Caliciaceae

Culbersonia

Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Fungi
Division:  | Ascomycota
Class:  | Lecanoromycetes
Order:  | Caliciales
Family:  | Caliciaceae
Genus:  | Culbersonia
Essl. (2000)
Type species
Culbersonia nubila

Essl. (2000)

Culbersonia is a fungal genus in the family Caliciaceae. This is a monotypic genus, containing the single foliose lichen Culbersonia nubila (formerly called Culbersonia americana). This species, which grows on trees and rocks, is found in dry subtropical regions of the world, particularly in Africa and Central America.

## Taxonomy

The genus Culbersonia was circumscribed by Theodore Esslinger in 2000, to contain a lichen he collected from Arizona that he named Culbersonia americana.[1]

The genus name of Culbersonia is in honour of Chicita Frances 'Nan' Culberson, (b.1931), an American botanist (Mycology und Lichenology), who worked as a botanical researcher at Duke University in Durham/North Carolina and William Louis "Bill" Culberson (1929–2003), an American lichenologist. As they were "longtime friends and mentors" of Esslinger.[2]

After Culbersonia americana was published, it was determined that the Arizona species was the same as one previously described from Africa in 1980 by Roland Moberg, called Pyxine nubila.[3] A new combination was made in a 2002 publication, and the name Culbersonia nubila was proposed.[4]

Culbersonia was until recently thought to belong to the Physciaceae due to morphological similarities with some of the genera in that family. Recent (2019) molecular phylogenetic analysis showed that it forms a monophyletic clade with Pyxine and Diplotomma, both of which are in the Caliciaceae. These three genera are morphologically distinguished from the other Caliciaceae by the appressed foliose growth form and the absence of a mazaedium (a fruit body consisting of a powdery mass of free ascospores).[5]

## Habitat and distribution

Culbersonia nubila grows on trees and rocks. It is found in dry subtropical regions of the world, particularly in Africa and Central America.[5]

## References

1. ↑ Esslinger, Theodore L. (2000). "Culbersonia americana, a rare new lichen (Ascomycota) from Western America". The Bryologist 103 (4): 771–773. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(2000)103[0771:CAARNL2.0.CO;2].
2. ↑ Burkhardt, Lotte (2022) (in German) (pdf). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen. Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
3. ↑ Moberg, R. (1980). "Studies on Physciaceae (Lichens) 1. A new species of Pyxine". Norwegian Journal of Botany 27: 189–191.
4. ↑ Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. 1. Tempe, Arizona: Lichens Unlimited, Arizona State University. 2002.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Aptroot, André; Maphangwa, Khumbudzo Walter; Zedda, Luciana; Tekere, Memory; Alvarado, Pablo; Sipman, Harrie J. M. (2019). "The phylogenetic position of Culbersonia is in the Caliciaceae (lichenized ascomycetes)". The Lichenologist 51 (2): 187–191. doi:10.1017/S0024282919000033.

Wikidata ☰ Q5192859 entry

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