{{Short description|Genus of lichens}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=September 2025}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Heppia lutosa 97477.jpg | image_caption = ''Heppia lutosa'' | taxon = Heppia | authority = Nägeli ex A.Massal. (1854) | type_species = ''Heppia adglutinata'' | type_species_authority = (Kremp.) A.Massal. (1854) | synonyms_ref = <ref name="urlFungorum synonymy: Heppia"/> | synonyms = {{Collapsible list|bullets=on |''Heterina'' {{au|Nyl. (1858)}} |''Endocarpiscum'' {{au|Nyl. (1864)}} |''Guepinia'' {{au|Hepp (1864)}} |''Guepinella'' {{au|Bagl. (1870)}} |''Nylanderopsis'' {{au|Gyeln. (1935)}} |''Pannariella'' {{au|(Vain.) Gyeln. (1935)}} |''Heppiomyces'' {{au|Cif. & Tomas. (1953)}} |''Placoheppia'' {{au|(Zahlbr.) Oxner (1956)}} }} }}
'''''Heppia''''' is a genus of olive, brownish, grey, or blackish squamulose, crustose, or peltate like lichens.<ref name=LFGSDR>Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1, Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bugartz, F., (eds.) 2001, [http://lichenportal.org/portal/taxa/index.php?taxon=53630]</ref> ''Heppia'' was once the type genus of the family Heppiaceae, but that family was folded into synonymy with Lichinaceae.<ref name="Schultz & Büdel 2003"/>
In a multilocus phylogeny and re-classification of the class Lichinomycetes published in 2024, María Prieto, Mats Wedin and Matthias Schultz placed ''Heppia'' in the family Porocyphaceae as part of an emended, broader circumscription of that family; earlier treatments that folded Heppiaceae into Lichinaceae are therefore superseded by the new arrangement. Species of ''Heppia'' are cyanolichens (usually with filamentous cyanobacteria) that favour open, well-lit habitats on soil or rock, including biological soil crusts in dry regions; they characteristically produce small {{lichengloss|squamules}} or peltate to crustose thalli and develop predominantly pycnoascocarpous sexual structures, consistent with the family diagnosis.<ref name="Prieto et al. 2024"/>
The genus was circumscribed by Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli and Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in 1854.<ref name="Massalongo 1854"/> The genus name ''Heppiella'' honours Johann Adam Philipp Hepp (1797–1867), a German physician and lichenologist.<ref name="Hertel 2012"/>
==Description==
''Heppia'' species grow on rock or soil in arid sites around the world, in habitats similar to those favoured by ''Peltula'', which is similar but has a different cyanobacterium as the {{lichengloss|photobiont}}.<ref name=LFGSDR/> It lacks a medulla that is separate from the photobiont layer.<ref name=LFGSDR/> It is a cyanolichen with the photobiont cyanobacterium being ''Syctonema'' (or ''Syctonema''-like).<ref name=LFGSDR/> The lower surface is paler than upper surface, and has numerous rhizoidal hyphae attaching it to the substrate.<ref name=LFGSDR/> The fruiting structures (ascomata) are apothecias immersed in the thallus with red to red-brown urn shaped ({{lichengloss|urceolate}}) to flat or slightly convex discs.<ref name=LFGSDR/> An exciple may or may not be present.<ref name=LFGSDR/>
==Species==
* ''Heppia adglutinata'' {{small|A.Massal. (1854)}} * ''Heppia arenacea'' {{small|M.Schultz (2005)}} * ''Heppia conchiloba'' {{small|Zahlbr. (1902)}} * ''Heppia despreauxii'' {{small|(Mont.) Tuck. (1872)}} * ''Heppia lutosa'' {{small|(Ach.) Nyl. (1869)}}
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Hertel 2012">{{cite book |author-link=Hannes Hertel |last1=Hertel |first1=Hannes |year=2012 |title=Gattungseponyme bei Flechten und Lichenicolen Pilzen |trans-title=Genus eponyms among lichens and lichenicolous fungi |series=Bibliotheca Lichenologica |volume=107 |publisher=J. Cramer |location=Stuttgart |isbn=978-3-443-58086-5 |pages=50–51 |language=de}}</ref>
<ref name="Massalongo 1854">{{cite book |last=Massalongo |first=A. |year=1854 |title=Geneacaena lichenum noviter proposita ac descripta |trans-title=A newly proposed and described lineage of lichens |location=Verona |publisher=Typic Amanzinianis |pages=7–8 |language=la |url=https://archive.org/details/geneacaenaliche00mass/page/6/mode/2up}}</ref>
<ref name="Prieto et al. 2024">{{cite journal |last1=Prieto |first1=M. |last2=Wedin |first2=M. |last3=Schultz |first3=M. |year=2024 |title=Phylogeny, evolution and a re-classification of the Lichinomycetes |journal=Studies in Mycology |volume=109 |pages=595–655 |doi=10.3114/sim.2024.109.09 |pmid=39717657 |pmc=11663425}}</ref>
<ref name="Schultz & Büdel 2003">{{cite journal |last1=Schultz |first1=Matthias |last2=Büdel |first2=Burkhard |title=On the systematic position of the lichen genus ''Heppia'' |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=35 |issue=2 |year=2003 |doi=10.1016/s0024-2829(03)00019-7 |pages=151–156 |bibcode=2003ThLic..35..151S }}</ref>
<ref name="urlFungorum synonymy: Heppia">{{cite web |title=Synonymy: ''Heppia'' Nägeli ex A. Massal. |url=https://www.speciesfungorum.org/Names/SynSpecies.asp?RecordID=2296 |publisher=Species Fungorum. CAB International |access-date=2014-10-31}}</ref>
}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q10522229}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Lichinomycetes genera Category:Lichen genera Category:Lichinomycetes Category:Taxa named by Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo Category:Taxa described in 1854