{{Short description|Lichen genus in the family Caliciaceae}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = | image_caption = | status = G4 | status_system = TNC | status_ref = <ref name=NS>{{cite NatureServe |id=2.637047 |title=''Culbersonia nubila'' |access-date=9 September 2025}}</ref> | taxon = Culbersonia | authority = Essl. (2000) | type_species = '''''Culbersonia nubila''''' | type_species_authority = Essl. (2000) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivisions = }}
'''''Culbersonia''''' is a fungal genus in the family Caliciaceae. This is a monotypic genus, containing the single foliose lichen '''''Culbersonia nubila''''' (formerly called '''''Culbersonia americana'''''). This species, which grows on trees and rocks, is found in dry subtropical regions of the world, particularly in Africa and Central America.
==Taxonomy== The genus ''Culbersonia'' was circumscribed by Ted Esslinger in 2000, to contain a lichen he collected from Arizona that he named ''Culbersonia americana''.<ref name="Esslinger 2000"/>
The genus name of ''Culbersonia'' is in honour of Chicita Frances 'Nan' Culberson, (b.1931), an American botanist (Mycology und Lichenology), who worked as a botanical researcher at Duke University in Durham/North Carolina and William Louis "Bill" Culberson (1929–2003), an American lichenologist. As they were "longtime friends and mentors" of Esslinger.<ref>{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022|format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 | s2cid=246307410 |access-date=January 27, 2022}}</ref>
After ''Culbersonia americana'' was published, it was determined that the Arizona species was the same as one previously described from Africa in 1980 by Roland Moberg, called ''Pyxine nubila''.<ref name="Moberg 1980"/> A new combination was made in a 2002 publication, and the name ''Culbersonia nubila'' was proposed.<ref name="Nash et al. 2002"/>
''Culbersonia'' was until recently thought to belong to the Physciaceae due to morphological similarities with some of the genera in that family. Recent (2019) molecular phylogenetic analysis showed that it forms a monophyletic clade with ''Pyxine'' and ''Diplotomma'', both of which are in the Caliciaceae. These three genera are morphologically distinguished from the other Caliciaceae by the appressed foliose growth form and the absence of a mazaedium (a fruit body consisting of a powdery mass of free ascospores).<ref name="Aptroot et al. 2019"/>
==Habitat and distribution== ''Culbersonia nubila'' grows on trees and rocks. It is found in dry subtropical regions of the world, particularly in Africa and Central America.<ref name="Aptroot et al. 2019"/>
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Aptroot et al. 2019">{{cite journal |author-link1=André Aptroot |last1=Aptroot |first1=André |last2=Maphangwa |first2=Khumbudzo Walter |last3=Zedda |first3=Luciana |last4=Tekere |first4=Memory |last5=Alvarado |first5=Pablo |last6=Sipman |first6=Harrie J. M. |title=The phylogenetic position of ''Culbersonia'' is in the Caliciaceae (lichenized ascomycetes) |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=51 |issue=2 |year=2019 |pages=187–191 |doi=10.1017/S0024282919000033|s2cid=150264979 }}</ref>
<ref name="Esslinger 2000">{{cite journal |last1=Esslinger |first1=Theodore L. |title=''Culbersonia americana'', a rare new lichen (Ascomycota) from Western America |journal=The Bryologist |volume=103 |issue=4 |year=2000 |pages=771–773 |doi=10.1639/0007-2745(2000)103[0771:CAARNL]2.0.CO;2|s2cid=86045065 }}</ref>
<ref name="Moberg 1980">{{cite journal |last1=Moberg |first1=R. |year=1980 |title=Studies on Physciaceae (Lichens) 1. A new species of ''Pyxine'' |journal=Norwegian Journal of Botany |volume=27 |pages=189–191}}</ref>
<ref name="Nash et al. 2002">{{cite book |author-link1=Thomas H. Nash |editor-last1=Nash |editor-first1=T. H. III |editor-last2=Ryan |editor-first2=B. D. |editor-last3=Gries |editor-first3=C. |editor-last4=Bungartz |editor-first4=F. |year=2002 |title=Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region |volume=1 |location=Tempe, Arizona |publisher=Lichens Unlimited, Arizona State University}}</ref>
}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q5192859|from2=Q10463446}}
Category:Caliciales Category:Lichen genera Category:Caliciales genera Category:Taxa described in 2000 Category:Taxa named by Theodore Lee Esslinger