Imshaugia

Imshaugia is a genus of seven species of foliose lichens in the family Parmeliaceae. They are commonly known as starburst lichens.

==Taxonomy== The genus was circumscribed by Susan Meyer in 1985 as a segregate of Parmeliopsis. In a previous study of Parmeliopsis, Meyer noted a group of species (represented by P. aleurites and P. placorodia) that would be better accommodated in a separate genus. This had been previously noted by other lichenologists: in 1932, Vilmos Gyelnik proposed the section Pallidifera to include the grey species of Parmeliopsis; in 1936 Johannes Hillmann proposed section Rectoconidia to contain species with short and straight conidia. Meyer created Imshaugia on the basis of its emergent and partly marginal pycnidia (they are immersed and laminal in Parmeliopsis), its short, (flask-shaped) or (tapering at both ends) conidia (these are long and curved in Parmeliopsis), and the presence of Cetraria-type lichenan in its cell walls rather than isolichenan as in Parmeliopsis.