Parmotrema is characterized by its typically large, moderately to loosely-attachedfoliose thallus with broad lobes that are usually more than 5 mm wide. There is a broad, naked zone around the margin of the lower surface, an epicortex with pores and an uppercortex with a palisade-plectenchymatous arrangement ofhyphae.Ascospores are thick-walled andellipsoid.[5]
Parmotrema was proposed as a genus by Italian lichenologistAbramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in 1860, withParmotrema perforatum as thetype species.[6] The genus name, composed of theGreekparmos (cup) andtrema (perforation), refers to the perforateapothecia.Parmotrema was largely ignored as a genus,[7] and its species were usually grouped insectionAmphigymnia of the large genusParmelia.[8] Several genera previously segregated fromParmotrema have since been folded back in owing tomolecular phylogenetic evidence, includingCanomaculina,Concamerella,Parmelaria, andRimelia.[3][9]
Some species ofParmotrema can be used as a vegetable dye, such asP. crinitum. When mixed with pine sap or with water, or when first burnt to ash, lichens can provide a variety of colors such as yellow, brown, green, orange, purple, and red.[10]
^Lumbsch TH, Huhndorf SM. (December 2007)."Outline of Ascomycota – 2007".Myconet.13. Chicago, USA: The Field Museum, Department of Botany:1–58. Archived fromthe original on March 18, 2009.
^Lücking, Robert; Hodkinson, Brendan P.; Leavitt, Steven D. (2017). "The 2016 classification of lichenized fungi in the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota–Approaching one thousand genera".The Bryologist.119 (4):361–416.doi:10.1639/0007-2745-119.4.361.S2CID90258634.
.jpg)
.jpg)