Hypotrachyna bogotensis (Vain.) Hale

Hypotrachyna bogotensis

Parmelia bogotensis Vainio, 1899: (122). [Type collection: Bogotá, Colombia, Weir 53 (TUR, lectotype; BM, isolectotype).]

Parmelia culmigena Zahlbruckner, 1905:81. [Type collection: El Altar, Ecuador, Meyer 381 (W, lectotype).]

Thallus adnate to loosely attached, 6–12 cm broad; lobes sublinear, dichotomously branched, 1–6 mm wide; upper surface plane, shiny, white-maculate, densely isidiate, the isidia cylindrical or at length procumbent and dorsiventral; lower surface densely rhizinate, the rhizines finely branched and forming a woolly mat. Apothecia very rare, adnate, to 5 mm in diameter; spores 6μ × 12μ.

CHEMISTRY.—Cortex K+ yellow, medulla K−, C+, KC+ rose to red, P− (atranorin, evernic acid, and lecanoric acid).

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT.—Mexico, Central America, West Indies, South America south to

Chile on trees in secondary and primary forests (oak, pine, Drimys), shrubs, fence posts, rocks, and soil on road banks at 1800–4100 m elevation.

Hypotrachyna bogotensis is a species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It was first described scientifically by Finnish lichenologist Edvard August Vainio. Mason Hale transferred it to the genus Hypotrachyna in 1975. It is a common species in the high mountains of the Central America and the northern Andes. It has also been recorded from southern Chile and from Gough Island.