BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Global researchers have for the first time revealed the species evolution of the green-algal Lobaria in the Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains in southwest China.

The green-algal Lobaria is a representative of large leafy lichens, which has a long history of use as food and medicine. However, it is not easy to identify its species division and systematic evolutionary process.

Researchers from the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Swiss Federal Research Institute constructed the phylogenetic framework of East Asian green-algal Lobaria and conducted related research by applying both morphological and phylogenetic approaches.

They discovered 11 new species of the green-algal Lobaria, among which 10 new species were found in the Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains, according to a paper published in the journal Persoonia.

The study also clarified that this genus has 21 species in East Asia, including 15 species in the Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains, accounting for over two-thirds of the total in East Asia. Therefore, the region is regarded as the distribution center of green-algal Lobaria in East Asia.

By constructing a phylogenetic tree of the green-algal Lobaria, researchers also calculated that its origins could be traced to the middle Miocene in East Asia. The complex ecological environment formed by the uplift of the Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains may have provided a "paradise" for these species to grow and reproduce. Enditem

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