Biology:Zeora

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Zeora is a genus of crustose lichens in the family Lecanoraceae. Species in Zeora usually form yellowish to yellow-green crusts that may look powdery or granular, most often on bark and wood, though some also grow on rock. Many specimens are sterile, so they are often encountered as spreading patches without obvious fruiting bodies. The genus is almost cosmopolitan, and DNA-based studies have supported reviving Zeora for a distinct group of species once placed in Lecanora that also share similar secondary metabolites (lichen products), commonly including usnic acid and zeorin.

Taxonomy

The name Zeora was introduced by the Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries in 1825, and it was among the earliest generic segregates recognized from the broad, traditional concept of Lecanora.[1] In the protologue he characterised it by apothecia with an exposed, waxy [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] that is at first covered by the thallus but later surrounded by a powdery [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] that gradually fades away, and by a thallus spreading outward from the centre as a wholly [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] (powdery) crust, reported from dry, shaded microhabitats such as sheltered rock faces and shaded bark crevices (often on north-facing surfaces).[2] Over the 19th and early 20th centuries, the name was applied in various ways: for example, Julius von Flotow used Zeora broadly for crustose lichens with [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] apothecia (fruiting bodies with a thallus-derived rim),[3] while later authors discussed "zeorine" margins (a dark [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] visible within a thalline rim), a feature that is not characteristic of the species now placed in Zeora. The type species is Lecanora orosthea (now Zeora orosthea), designated by Josef Hafellner in 1984.[4][1]

In a seven-locus phylogeny of Lecanora (in the loose sense, or sensu lato), Ivanovich‑Hichins and colleagues recovered Zeora as a supported genus-level clade and proposed resurrecting Zeora for the L. symmicta group, supported by a combination of phylogenetic, morphological, and chemical evidence.[1]

A later phylogenomic analysis based on 1003 orthologous genes also placed Zeora close to (and sister to) one of the Lecanora subfusca clades, within a "core" assemblage of Lecanora sensu stricto and allied lineages. That study showed that different genes placed Zeora in different positions on the evolutionary tree, pointing to a complex evolutionary history, even though the genus is morphologically and chemically distinctive and readily identifiable.[5]

Description

Species of Zeora form thin to thick crusts on their substrates. The thallus surface is typically yellowish to yellow‑green and often granular, [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] (mealy), or sorediate (powdery, with propagules for vegetative reproduction). Fruiting bodies (apothecia) may be absent in some species; when present they are usually flat to convex, sometimes [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] (with a whitish coating), and may darken with age. The apothecial margin can be lecanorine or [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] and commonly becomes excluded (i.e., the rim is reduced or disappears as the disc expands).[1]

Microscopically, Zeora lacks large amphithecial oxalate crystals; instead, small crystals and granules are often potassium hydroxide (KOH)-soluble (with Z. strobilina noted as an exception in granule solubility behaviour). Asci are of the Lecanora-type and typically eight-spored, though Z. strobilinoides can have more spores per ascus. The ascospores are hyaline and usually [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]], occasionally with a single septum. Conidia are threadlike ([[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]]) and often curved.[1]

Chemically, Zeora usually produces usnic acid and zeorin as major secondary metabolites. Atranorin is generally absent (reported as an exception for Z. sulphurea), and a variety of other compounds may occur in some species, sometimes only in trace amounts. In comparisons made by the authors, Zeora differs from Straminella in having a more granular/farinose or sorediate thallus and margins that often become excluded; Straminella typically has a more consistently developed ([[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]]) amphithecial margin and different secondary chemistry (notably psoromic acid patterns).[1]

Habitat, distribution, and ecology

Most Zeora species occur on bark or wood (corticolous or lignicolous), although saxicolous species on siliceous rocks also occur. The genus is described as nearly cosmopolitan, with representatives on most continents but not Antarctica.[1]

Zeora is lichenized with [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]] green algae as the [[Glossary of lichen terms#{{biology:{1}}}|{{Biology:{1}}}]]. Some species are frequently encountered in sterile condition (without apothecia), consistent with the common presence of sorediate or mealy thalli that can spread vegetatively.[1]

Species

Zeora strobilina

The 2025 resurrection transferred the following species into Zeora (including the type species Z. orosthea):[1]

  • Zeora aitema (Ach.) Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora atrosulphurea (Wahlenb.) Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora austrocalifornica (Lendemer & K.Knudsen)[6] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora compallens (Herk & Aptroot)[7] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora confusa (Almb.)[8] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora expallens (Ach.) L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora flavoleprosa (Tønsberg)[9] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora helmutii (Pérez-Ort. & Kantvilas)[10] Pérez-Ort., L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora orosthea (Ach.) Flot. (1850)
  • Zeora parasymmicta (B.G.Lee & Hur)[11] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora pulverulenta (Müll.Arg.) L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora stanislai (Guzow-Krzem., Łubek, Malíček & Kukwa)[12] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora straminea (Stenh.) L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora strobilina (Spreng.) L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora strobilinoides (Giralt & Gómez-Bolea)[13] L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)
  • Zeora sulphurea (Hoffm.) Flot. (1850)
  • Zeora symmicta (Ach.) L.M.Weber & Ivanovich (2025)

The authors noted that Z. symmicta may represent a species complex, and they suggested that future work could use molecular data to refine its circumscription.[1]

They also listed several additional Lecanora species as likely members of Zeora pending DNA data (and therefore not formally transferred in that work), including Lecanora americana, L. brucei, L. confusoides, L. conizella, L. cupressi, L. fluoroxylina, L. orae-frigidae, L. perconfusa, L. sabinae, L. simeonensis, L. subaureoides, L. substrobilina, L. subtecta, and L. terpenoidea.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Ivanovich-Hichins, Cristóbal; Weber, Lilith; Li, Lijuan; Leavitt, Steven D.; Muggia, Lucia; Palice, Zdenek; Pérez-Ortega, Sergio; Sohrabi, Mohammad et al. (2025). "New phylogenetic insights into the lichen genus Lecanora s. lat. (Lecanoraceae, Ascomycota): resurrection of the genera Glaucomaria, Straminella and Zeora". The Lichenologist 57 (6): 278–303. doi:10.1017/S0024282925101321. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399148397. 
  2. ↑ Fries, EM. (1825) (in la). Systema Orbis Vegetabilis. Lundin: Typographia Academica. p. 244. https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/viewer/11732/?offset=#page=252. 
  3. ↑ Flotow, J. (1850). "Lichenes florae silesiae" (in la). Jahresbericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Kultur 27: 98–135. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39078848. 
  4. ↑ Hafellner, J. (1984) (in de). Studien in Richtung einer natürlicheren Gliederung der Sammelfamilien Lecanoraceae und Lecideaceae. Beihefte zur Nova Hedwigia. 79. pp. 241–371 [241]. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309210346. 
  5. ↑ Li, L.J.; Ivanovich-Hichins, C.; LaGreca, S.; Muggia, L.; Myllys, L.; Pérez-Ortega, S.; Thor, G.; Weber, L. et al. (2025), Does more data solve the problem of deep support? A phylogenomic approach to clarifying evolutionary relationships in the Lecanoraceae, doi:10.64898/2025.12.18.694902, http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.64898/2025.12.18.694902, retrieved 19 January 2026 
  6. ↑ Knudsen, Kerry; Lendemer, James Colin (2009). "Two new usnic acid containing species of Lecanora from western North America". Opuscula Philolichenum 6: 73–80. doi:10.5962/p.381971. 
  7. ↑ van Herk, C.M.; Aptroot, A. (1999). "Lecanora compallens and L. sinuosa, two new overlooked corticolous lichen species from western Europe". The Lichenologist 31 (6): 543–553. doi:10.1017/S0024282999000717. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230604285. 
  8. ↑ Almborn, O. (1955). "Lavvegetation och lavflora på Hallands Väderö" (in sv). Kunglige Svenska Vetenskapsakademien Avhandlinger I Naturskyddsarden 11: 72. 
  9. ↑ Tønsberg, T. (1992). "The sorediate and isidiate, corticolous, crustose lichens in Norway". Sommerfeltia 14: 161. doi:10.2478/som-1992-0002. ISBN 82-7420-015-2. 
  10. ↑ Pérez-Ortega, S.; Kantvilas, G. (2018). "Lecanora helmutii, a new species from the Lecanora symmicta group from Tasmania". Herzogia 31 (1): 639–649. doi:10.13158/heia.31.1.2018.639. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329454113. 
  11. ↑ Lee, Beeyoung Gun; Hur, Jae-Seoun (2021). "Two new lecanoroid lichen species from the forested wetlands of South Korea, with a key for Korean Protoparmeliopsis species". MycoKeys (84): 163–183. doi:10.3897/mycokeys.84.70798. PMID 34815730. 
  12. ↑ Guzow-Krzemińska, Beata; Łubek, Anna; Malíček, Jiří; Tønsberg, Tor; Oset, Magdalena; Kukwa, Martin (2017). "Lecanora stanislai, a new, sterile, usnic acid containing lichen species from Eurasia and North America". Phytotaxa 329 (3): 201–211. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.329.3.1. http://publication.plazi.org/id/5C76FFCDFF866A7D010F8C094651FFA8. 
  13. ↑ Giralt, M.; Gomez-Bolea, A. (1991). "Lecanora strobilinoides, a new lichen species from north-eastern Spain". The Lichenologist 23 (2): 107–112. doi:10.1017/S0024282991000270. 

Wikidata ☰ Q63247951 entry



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