| Holotype: Caloplaca obamae K. Knudsen | ||
| Description: Thallus: thin chasmolithic crust, often unapparent, verruculose, with thin whitish to hyaline phenocortex, not forming areoles or squamules, with abundant discreet patches of orange granules, 0.2-1 mm in diam., covering areas up to 6-7 cm, sometimes intermixed with other terricolous lichens and bryophytes in biological soil crusts; Granules: orange, mostly 30-50 µm in diam., usually coalesced and adhering to one another, K+ purple, C-, paraplectenchymatous cortex around an algal core, 1-4 layers thick, cells mostly 2-3 µm in diam., without any projecting hyphae; Algal layer: a discontinuous thin stratum, usually 50-100 µm thick, well-developed beneath patches of granules, but usually lacking between the patches of granules; Hypothallus: stabilizing the substrate with a rhizohyphal weft, with hyaline rhizohyphae 1-2 µm thick, apparently with a few longer hyaline rhizines 3-4.5 µm thick, mixed with soil fungi and bacteria and becoming gelatinized. | ||
| Type: USA: California: Santa Barbara County: Santa Rosa Island (Channel Islands National Park): on alluvial bench just above bottom of Soledad Canyon, near crossing of Smith Highway, 33° 59' 12" N, 120° 08' 20" W, Elev. 96 m., on soil with Leprocaulon microscopicum, 23.x.2008, K. Knudsen 10545 w/ S. Chaney & K. Niessen (UCR, holotype; PRM, isotype). | ||
| The original paper describing the type appeared in Opuscula Philolichenum 6: 37-40 and is available on that publication's web site. NOTE: Unpublished molecular analysis shows Caloplaca obamae is a good species closely related to an undescribed taxon from Scotland and several undescribed taxa from South America as well as Caloplaca bermaguiana from Australia (Ulf Arup, pers. comm.). | ||
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| Image: J.C. Lendemer. | ||