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The Glyphis lichen (Glyphis cicatricosa) belongs to the family Graphidaceae. It is a crustose lichen that is widely distributed from Shizuoka Prefecture of Honshu westwards to Shikoku, Kyushu in Japan, and also in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and North and South America. It grows on the bark of trees in tropical and warm temperate zones. The lichen body is thin, smooth, and shiny, with a greenish-brown color. The thallus is lirella-shaped, and the stromata is 1.5 to 4 mm wide, round to distorted elliptic, flat, black, and covered in a thin white layer. There are many lirellae, which are initially round but later become longer and irregularly branch out to cover the stromata.
In 2017, this lichen was discovered on the bark of an Amur corktree tree in the Tsukuba Botanical Garden in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The discovery in Tsukuba City this time marks the new northern limit of the natural habitat of this lichen. In addition to the rise in average annual temperatures caused by global warming and heat islands, it is thought that the improved air quality in urban areas is expanding the environment in which tropical lichens can grow.
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