Megalaria is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Ramalinaceae. It contains 46 species of crustose lichens, the majority of which grow on bark. The genus was established in 1984 and has since grown to include species from diverse regions ranging from subantarctic islands to tropical forests. Most Megalaria species are recognised by their large, black fruiting bodies that sit directly on the lichen's surface, along with their thick-walled ascospores that are divided by a single internal partition. The genus primarily colonises tree bark in moist, shaded habitats, though some species al
GENUS
via GBIF
Megalaria is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Ramalinaceae. It contains 46 species of crustose lichens, the majority of which grow on bark. The genus was established in 1984 and has since grown to include species from diverse regions ranging from subantarctic islands to tropical forests. Most Megalaria species are recognised by their large, black fruiting bodies that sit directly on the lichen's surface, along with their thick-walled ascospores that are divided by a single internal partition. The genus primarily colonises tree bark in moist, shaded habitats, though some species also grow on rocks or mosses in mountainous and polar environments.
==Taxonomy==
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).