Rare lichen species found in Mullayanagiri, say researchers

MANGALURU: A team of researchers has recorded a rare species of lichen called ‘Usnea hirta’, belonging to family Parmeliaceae, at Mullayanagiri in Chikkamagaluru. The species was recorded for the first time in the country, they said.
The team includes KS Vinayaka from the department of botany, Sri Venkataramana Swamy College, Bantwal and Archana R Mesta and N Rajeshwari from the department of botany, Sahyadri Science College, Shivamogga.
Vinayaka said that lichens are the first members to colonise barren rocks, and are good forest health indicators, in the tropical forest regions of the world.
“Usnea species is rare, and grows in higher altitudes in India. Western Himalayas and Western Ghats are lichen hotspots in the country. Usnea is one the largest fruticose genera of lichen, forming fungi around the world, within the family Parmeliaceae,” said Vinayaka.
“The new record of Usnea is differentiated on the basis of pigmentation, branching types, the density of branches, and different morphological parts,” he said, adding that the study was based on the lichens collected from different parts of Karnataka, during 2008–2020. The research work was published in the latest edition of the ‘Journal of Threatened Taxa’.
“The lichens were collected from different altitudes, and all types of substrata such as barks, twigs, and rocks in Mullayanagiri. The collected samples were taken to the laboratory, air-dried, and stored in the lichen herbarium of Kumadvathi First Grade College and Sri Venkataramana Swamy College. The voucher specimen was submitted to the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow. The rare species was confirmed only after verifying with the NBRI. The paper has been published in a peer-reviewed journal,” he said.