Lathagrium cristatum
species of fungus
Lathagrium cristatum, the fingered jelly lichen or fingered rock-jelly, is a species of cyanolichen in the family Collemataceae. Originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, the species has a complex taxonomic history involving numerous synonyms and nomenclatural challenges that were only resolved through formal conservation of the name in 1996. The lichen forms distinctive dark olive-green to blackish rosettes on calcareous rocks, with thin, narrow lobes that have characteristically wavy, toothed margins. It has a widespread distribution across the Northern Hemisphere, occurring in diverse climates from arid lowland deserts to arctic and alpine zones. Like other members of its family, it contains cyanobacteria as its photosynthetic partner, enabling it to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The species typically grows in undisturbed natural habitats on hard limestone or dolomite, often in exposed sites moistened by rain runoff.
Taxonomy
Lathagrium cristatum was originally described by the Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus as Lichen cristatus in his 1753 work Species Plantarum. His protologue provided a new diagnostic phrase-name based entirely on Johann Jacob Dillenius's Historia muscorum, the only work cited, because Linnaeus himself had never seen the species in Sweden. No original specimens exist in the Linnaean Herbarium, and the only original material traceable to the protologue is the Dillenian plate (tab. XIX, fig.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lathagrium cristatum” as species of fungus. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of fungus. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23654994. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1753 and 1996.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lathagrium cristatum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.