Everniopsis

Everniopsis trulla was first formally described by Erik Acharius in 1803 with the name Parmelia trulla.[4] The type material, collected in Peru, is kept at the herbarium of the Department of Botany at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.[5] William Nylander transferred the taxon to the new genus Everniopsis in 1860.[6] Ernst Stizenberger thought that Everniopsis should be a section of genus Parmelia, and proposed this classification in an 1862 publication.[7] The genus Hendrickxia, circumscribed by Belgian botanist Paul Auguste Duvigneaud in 1942 with Hendrickxia pseudoreticulata as the type species,[8] has been folded into synonymy with Everniopsis.[1]

Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicates that Everniopsis is in the Psiloparmelioid clade of the family Parmeliaceae, along with the genus Psiloparmelia.[9][10]

Evernipiopsis has a thallus attached by a holdfast to its substrate. The lobes comprising the thallus are linearly elongated, split into two at the ends, and longitudinally grooved (canaliculate). The thallus lacks both rhizines (root-like structures) and cilia (short, eyelash-like hair). Its conidia (asexual spores) are rod-shaped with swellings at each end (bifusiform). It produces ascospores that are ellipsoid in shape, measuring 12–16 by 7–10 μm.[11] The superficially similar genus Everniastrum, in contrast, does not have a holdfast, it does have both rhizines and cilia, and its conidia are cylindrical.[11]

Secondary chemicals that have been identified from Everniopsis trulla include usnic acid, atranorin, and ethyl haematommate.[12]

Everniopsis trulla is a corticolous lichen and occurs in Africa and South America. On the latter continent, the lichen occurs at high elevations from Mexico south to northern Chile.[13]