An Unexpected Lichen, in Name and in Fact
ESP version ITA version
You are walking along trails you’ve hiked dozens of times when suddenly, you start wondering about the greenish-gray crusts on trees you often pass by. Equipped with paper bags, always handy in a professional lichenologist’s backpack, you begin sampling carefully. You send the samples to a colleague for a more precise identification and—surprise, surprise—four of them turn out to be completely different from the others.
At first, you classify these samples under the genus Lepraria due to some similarities, such as the very fine thallus that crumbles into granules. However, something feels off. You soon realize that these four specimens are not as green as you initially thought. Their crust has a bluish tint, with shades between turquoise and dark aqua-green—something neither of you had ever seen in any other lichen before. Not only that, but molecular analyses on the extracted DNA sequences place the specimens in another genus, Leprocaulon to be precise, without matching any previously sequenced species.
The plot thickens, and your research group expands. You decide to involve other experts to sequence the DNA from a larger sample size beyond the initial four specimens. More samples are collected, and now you are anxiously awaiting the results, as if you were waiting for the outcome of a paternity test.
And finally, what you had hoped for—but were hesitant to say out loud—becomes reality: you have just discovered a new species of lichen for Italy! But there’s more: the symbiotic alga—since lichens are living beings mainly composed of a symbiosis between a cyanobacterium (or an alga) and a fungus—also turns out to be new to science and belongs to the genus Symbiochloris!
Now comes the challenge of choosing a name. Since the first specimens were collected in the Ticino Valley, the research team initially leaned toward Leprocaulon ticinense. However, you—the lichenologist who first collected them—decide to take another walk, this time in Val Camonica. And what do you find on a chestnut tree? That same bluish lichen, in a completely different habitat. The initial name is thus discarded, and given the constant surprises this tiny living organism has provided and continues to provide, there is only one possible choice: Leprocaulon inexpectatum.
This discovery proves that, despite environmental degradation, there are still islands of biodiversity that persist and hold surprises. And who knows? Maybe the next new species is just waiting to be found by you, on one of your usual trails!
See You Soon, and Good Science!
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