Cladonia gracilis

Cladonia gracilis or the smooth cup lichen^[2] is a species of fruticose, cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It was first described as a new species by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 work Species Plantarum.^[3] German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow transferred it to the genus Cladonia in 1787.^[4] In North America, it is known colloquially as the "smooth Cladonia".^[5]

Cladonia gracilis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Lecanoromycetes
Order:	Lecanorales
Family:	Cladoniaceae
Genus:	Cladonia
Species:	C. gracilis
Binomial name
Cladonia gracilis (L.) Willd. (1787)
Synonyms[1]
Lichen gracilis L. (1753) Lichen pyxidatus var. gracilis (L.) Weiss (1770) Baeomyces gracilis (L.) Ach. (1803) Capitularia gracilis (L.) Flörke (1810) Cenomyce ecmocyna var. gracilis (L.) Ach. (1810) Cenomyce ecmocyna f. gracilis (L.) Ach. (1814) Cenomyce gracilis (L.) Dufour (1817) Scyphophorus cornutus var. gracilis (L.) Mérat (1821) Scyphophorus ecmocynus var. gracilis (L.) Gray (1821)

The Cladonia gracilis group is a monophyletic group of species that all are morphologically similar to C. gracilis. In this group, the delimitations of species is difficult due to the morphological similarity between taxa, and the fact that many of the characters used to classify species are influenced by environmental factors such as light exposure, temperature or humidity.^[6]

See also

• List of Cladonia species

References

1. "Synonymy: Cladonia gracilis (L.) Willd., Fl. berol. prodr.: 363 (1787)". Species Fungorum. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
2. "Standardized Common Names for Wild Species in Canada". National General Status Working Group. 2020.
3. Linnaeus, Carl (1753). Species plantarum (in Latin). Vol. 2. Stockholm: Impensis Laurentii Salvii. p. 1151.
4. von Willdenow, Carl Ludwig (1787). Florae Berolinensis Prodromus (in Latin). Berlin: Friedrich Vieweg. p. 361.
5. Brodo, Irwin M.; Sharnoff, Sylvia Duran; Sharnoff, Stephen (2001). Lichens of North America. Yale University Press. pp. 256–257. ISBN 978-0-300-08249-4.
6. Pino-Bodas, Raquel; Burgaz, Ana Rosa; Martín, María P.; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2011). "Phenotypical plasticity and homoplasy complicate species delimitation in the Cladonia gracilis group (Cladoniaceae, Ascomycota)". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 11 (5): 343–355. doi:10.1007/s13127-011-0062-2.