Lecanora merrillii

Lecanora merrillii was first described by the Finnish lichenologist Edvard August Vainio in 1913, who named it for the American botanist Elmer Drew Merrill. Vainio's account presents it as a distinct species of Lecanora based on a combination of morphology, simple spot test reactions, and microscopic features recorded from Philippine material. ==Description==

Lecanora merrillii is a crustose lichen with a closely adherent, continuous that looks smooth to slightly warted; the warts are fine and can be scattered or crowded. The colour is straw-tinged grey (substramineous-glaucescent). In simple spot tests the thallus is K+ (yellow) and C−; the is white, and a blackish partly outlines the margin of the thallus. The fruiting bodies () are tightly attached and often crowded, about 0.8–1.5 mm across. Their are flat, pale, and naked (without a surface ), appearing opaque; the discs are K− and C−. The rim is thin, nearly entire, and the same colour as the thallus; in section the apothecium is round (). Internally, the is whitish and the is 50–75 μm thick and I+ (persistently blue) in iodine. The is pale and , and the are tightly coherent with very slender . Asci contain eight, colourless, simple ascospores arranged in two rows; the spores are oblong (rarely ellipsoidal), with obtuse tips, and measure 11–15 μm × 5–7 μm. The internal (apothecial rim tissue) is whitish and contains large crystals. ==Habitat and distribution==

Vainio described the species from the island of Guimaras in the Philippines, collected by Elmer Drew Merrill (collection no. 6720). The material was taken on the bark of coconut palms (Cocos) growing on the seashore. No other substrates or localities were cited in the protologue. Lecanora merrillii is one of 14 Lecanora species that have been recorded from the Philippines, and one of three in the genus that was first described from specimens collected in the country. The lichen has also been recorded growing on the shaded bark of Guettarda speciosa in the Onotoa atoll in the Gilbert Islands. ==See also==