Phyllopsora confusa Swinscow & Krog

Kistenich, Sonja, Bendiksby, Mika, Vairappan, Charles S., Weerakoon, Gothamie, Wijesundara, Siril, Wolseley, Patricia A. & Timdal, Einar, 2019, A regional study of the genus Phyllopsora (Ramalinaceae) in Asia and Melanesia, MycoKeys 53, pp. 23-72 : 23

Phyllopsora confusa Swinscow & Krog

Description.

Swinscow and Krog (1981), Timdal and Krog (2001), Elix (2009).

Distribution.

Pantropical ( Brako 1991; Timdal and Krog 2001; Elix 2009).

Remarks.

This species is characterized by the small, lacinulate squamules lacking lichen substances (Fig. 4A), but may be difficult to separate from, for example, P. foliata and P. mediocris . It is also possible that some of the specimens we have left undetermined belong in this species. We have sequenced nine specimens from Asia and Melanesia (Table 2), in addition to the holotype from Kenya, and those specimens make up the core in our concept of this species. The accessions of P. confusa form a strongly supported clade with P. loekoesii in the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 1). The two specimens from Papua New Guinea (6360 and 6361) fall in between the P. confusa and P. loekoesii clade (Suppl. material 1: Fig. S1) and show an intermediate morphology. Further specimens are needed to investigate the possible synonymy of these two species. Phyllopsora confusa is new to Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand.