Parmelina was introduced to accommodate grey-coloured parmelioid species with sparse marginal cilia, a black lower surface and an upper cortex with a palisade plectenchyma and a pored epicortex. In its original circumscription, the genus included a number of unrelated elements that were subsequently placed elsewhere. In its restricted sense, the genus has a centre of distribution in western North America and Europe. It currently includes c. 15 species distributed in the temperate regions of both Hemispheres. Argüello & al. (2007) found that P. quercina, as circumscribed by Hale (1976), comprises four species, two of which do occur in Europe: P. quercina in the strict sense (continental Europe) and P. carporrhizans (oceanic and suboceanic Europe, and Macaronesia). A third species, the saxicolous P. atricha, was added to the European flora by Clerc & Truong (2008). Finally, Núñez-Zapata & al. (2011) described a further cryptic species, P. cryptotiliacea, which is almost indistinguishable from P. tiliacea, and seems to be restricted to a rather narrow portion of the Iberian Peninsula; these authors also found that P. pastillifera was nested within P. tiliacea; as the two species differ both in morphology and ecology, they are still kept separate here.

References

Argüello A., Nederson Prado R., Cubas P., Crespo A. 2007. Parmelina quercina (Parmeliaceae, Lecanorales) includes four phylogenetically supported morphospecies. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 91, 3: 455-467.
Clerc P., Truong C. 2008. The non-sorediate and non-isidiate Parmelina species (lichenized ascomycetes, Parmeliaceae) in Switzerland - Parmelina atricha (Nyl.) P. Clerc reinstated in the European lichen flora. Sauteria, 15: 175-194.
Hale M.E. Jr. 1976. A monograph of the lichen genus Parmelina Hale (Parmeliaceae). Smithsonian Contrib. Bot., 33: 1-60.
Nimis P.L. 2016. The lichens of Italy. A second annotated catalogue. EUT, Trieste, 740 pp.
Núñez-Zapata J., Divakar P.K., Del-Prado R., Cubas P., Hawksworth D.L., Crespo A. 2011. Conundrums in species concepts: the discovery of a new cryptic species segregated from Parmelina tiliacea (Ascomycota: Parmeliaceae). Lichenologist 43, 6: 603-616
br> Last modified: March, 19, 2022

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