A tale of two species: molecular data reveal the chemotypes of Lepraria normandinoides (Stereocaulaceae) to be two sympatric species

Lepraria normandinoides is currently circumscribed to include three chemotypes that differ in the presence/absence of two structurally similar depsides: fumarprotocetraric acid and protocetraric acid. Populations of these chemotypes are sympatric and morphologically identical. A molecular phylogeny was inferred from ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2 sequence data generated from a geographically broad sampling of populations of L. normandinoides. Two strongly-supported clades were recovered that correlate to the depside producing chemotypes. Consequently L. normandinoides is restricted to the protocetraric acid producing chemotype and the fumarprotocetraric acid chemotype is formally described as L. oxybapha. Acid deficient populations are tentatively retained in L. normandinoides.