Usnea Lichens

What's in a Name?

Even though lichens are dual organisms formed by the combination of a fungus and a photobiont, their appearance is mostly determined by the genetics of the fungus so the lichen is named after the fungal component.

Scientific names are in Latin and consist of two parts:

1. the name of the genus (capitalized) followed by
2. the species name in lower-case letters.

Two lichens with the same genus name will have a lot in common: Usnea longissima, Usnea trichodea and Usnea ceratina share a similar thallus structure, spore type, chemistry, etc. The species names are often descriptive. Usnea longissima means "very long Usnea" in Latin, Usnea trichodea means "hair-like Usnea" and Usnea scabrata is named for the roughness of the outer layer of the lichen.