Melanelia, Melanelixia, Melanohalea & Montanelia
Melanelia Essl., 1978 group, including Melanelixia O. Blanco, A. Crespo, Divakar, Essl., D. Hawksw. & Lumbsch, 2004, Melanohalea O. Blanco, A. Crespo, Divakar, Essl., D. Hawksw. & Lumbsch, 2004 & Montanelia Divakar, A. Crespo, Wedin & Essl., 2012
| Common name | Camouflage Lichens |
|---|---|
| Field Characters | Small to medium sized, cryptic, foliose chlorolichens. Thalli typically appressed and attached throughout, sometimes with ascending lobe tips. Upper cortex olive brown to dark brown, shiny to dull, sometimes with marginal to laminal pseudocyphellae. Lower cortex varies from pale to black, with short, simple, concolorous rhizines. Medulla white, loose to compact. Vegetative reproduction often present, either isidia or soredia. Some species regularly fertile with stipitate apothecia. Pycnidia also common, sometimes embedded and laminal or sometimes marginal and superficial, and then resembling tiny black barrels. Lacking tomentum on either cortex but tiny cortical hairs present in some Melanelia. |
| Similar genera |
Tuckermannopsis: thalli more ascending, typically with minimal attachment to the substrate.
Nephroma: apothecia common and located on the lower surface. |
| Ecology | Epiphytic and on downed wood, more rarely on rock or ground-dwelling. Most common and diverse in Alberta’s mountain, foothills and shield sites, with many species common in the boreal, grassland and parkland. Relatively diverse in urban settings (Haughland et al. 2022). |
| Chemistry | Melanin in the cortex. Medulla with various compounds including fumarprotocetraric acid (PD+ red), lecanoric acid (C+pink), perlatolic acid (UV+ blue white), norstictic acid (K+ slow red, forming crystals, PD+ deep yellow). |
| Molecular support |
Melanelia has been successively split into multiple genera based on molecular analyses and previously underappreciated morphological traits. See the table below for a comparison. |
| Links |
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RENR Students: Know or be able to key out Melanelixia albertana, Melanelixia subaurifera & Melanohalea exasperatula.
Click here for a key to the brown foliose lichens of Alberta
Click here for a key to the Melanelia group v. 2025
Resources
McCune, B. & L. Geiser. 2009. Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest. 2nd edition. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR, USA.
