Astrothelium philippinense

Astrothelium philippinense is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae. Found in the Philippines, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by lichenologists André Aptroot and Felix Schumm. The type specimen was collected from Mount Talinis (Negros Oriental province) at an altitude between 1,100 and 1,600 m (3,600 and 5,200 ft); there, it was found in a rainforest growing on smooth tree bark. The lichen has a smooth and shiny, pale ochraceous-green thallus with a cortex and a thin (0.1–0.4 mm wide) brown to black prothallus line. It covers areas of up to 7 cm (2.8 in) in diameter. The presence of the lichen induces galls in the host plant, leading to the formation of numerous wart-like structures about 1–2 mm wide. No lichen products were detected in collected samples of the lichen using thin-layer chromatography. The combination of characteristics of the lichen that distinguish it from others in Astrothelium are the bullate, gall......read more on Wikipedia.