by InTrieste
A new species of lichen has just been discovered by an international team coordinated by the American lichenologist Kerry Knudsen from material collected by Pier Luigi Nimis, Professor of Systematic Botany at the University of Trieste, on limestone rocks in Contovello (Coast of Trieste).
The new species, Sarcogyne nimisii, was dedicated to the discoverer. Surprisingly, it appears genetically closer to a group of North American species than to the other congeners so far known in Europe.
The discovery brings the total number of lichens known for the Karst to 604, a remarkable biodiversity considering the geological uniformity and the modest altitude.
The samples of the new species are preserved in the herbarium of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste, the largest modern collection of lichens in Italy.
