Nipponoparmelia

Nipponoparmelia is a small genus of five foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. It was proposed by Syo Kurokawa in 1994 as a subgenus of Parmelia and raised to generic rank in 2010 as part of a molecular work that recovered a monophyletic East Asian clade distinct from Parmelia sensu stricto; N. laevior is the type species. Species share grey to brownish thalli with minute, point-like pseudocyphellae on the lobe margins, which are tiny aeration pores limited to the edges rather than the main thallus surface. They also have a black lower surface with simple to sparsely forked rhizines, and chemistry typical of parmelioid lichens. Most species are epiphytes on tree bark in mixed and montane forests, only occasionally occurring on rock. The genus ranges from Japan, Taiwan and China through South Korea and the southern Russian Far East, south to the Philippines via N. isidioclada, and west to the eastern Himalaya (Bhutan, north-east India and Nepal), where N. ricasolioides grows at ab......read more on Wikipedia.