Astrothelium ecuadorense

Astrothelium ecuadorense is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] Found in Ecuador, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected by Harrie Sipman in the Estacion Cientifico San Francisco in the South Ecuadorian Andes (Zamora-Chinchipe Province); there, it was found in a mountainous rainforest growing on smooth tree bark. The lichen has a smooth and shiny, pale yellowish-green thallus with a cortex but lacking a prothallus, covering areas of up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter. No lichen products were detected in the collected specimens.[2] The main characteristics of the lichen distinguishing it from others in Astrothelium are the lack of pseudocyphellae on the thallus, and the solitary, exposed, black ascomata.[3] It is also one of the few Astrothelium species with only two spores in its asci.[2]

Astrothelium ecuadorense
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Dothideomycetes
Order:	Trypetheliales
Family:	Trypetheliaceae
Genus:	Astrothelium
Species:	A. ecuadorense
Binomial name
Astrothelium ecuadorense Aptroot (2016)