Melanohalea peruviana

Melanohalea peruviana is a little-known species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. Described in 2012 from a single specimen collected at 4,400 meters elevation in Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, this lichen forms small, tightly attached rosettes on angiosperm twigs in high-Andean scrubland. It represents the first member of its mainly north-temperate genus reported from tropical South America and is distinguished from similar species by having eight ascospores per reproductive cell rather than the typical 16–32.