01/09/2025
So what is the correct name for our endemic Caloplaca lichen that lives only on manawa / mangrove (Avicennia marina subsp. resinifera)?
What we have long called Caloplaca mooreae was first described by Lichenologist Alexander Zahlbruckner (31 May - 1860 - 8 May 1938) as Caloplaca L. B. Moorii in 1941. An odd way of spelling a name, but legimate none-the-less, though in this case it omitted the fact that the person so commemorated was a woman Lucy Beatrice Moore (the epithet "L. B. Moorii" should have been spelled "L. B. Mooreae"). In case you wondered Lucy Moore found this lichen on the basal trunk of mangrove trees in the Mahurangi River near Warkworth on the 3rd of June 1934. She sent her collection to Harry H.B. Allan who then forwarded it to Zahlbruckner. Somehow the naming author thought Lucy was a man.
Anyway, in Aotearoa | New Zealand we have long called this lichen Caloplaca mooreae following that name's usage in the two Lichen Flora treatments (1985, 2007) for our nation written by David Galloway. Galloway was aware of the earlier spelling of Lucy Moore's name, yet while he correctly addressed the issue of gender he also pointed out that the use of initials was incorrect by the then code of nomenclature in use (he was not quite correct), and so published Caloplaca mooreae in 1983 to replace Zahlbruckner's, apparently incorrectly formulated C. L. B. Moorii.
Last year Dr Dan Blanchon, curator of botany, who is compiling a modern checklist of the lichenized mycobiota of Aotearoa | New Zealand found that Mycobank was using an expansion of Zahlbruckner's 1941 name, as Caloplaca lucy-beatrice-mooreae Zahlbr. Further Mycobank stated that Caloplaca mooreae was an illegitimate replacement name. Dan wondered if this was true, and so together with Prof. Peter de Lange they set out to sort this problem out. On the way they worked in with Prof. Sergei Mosyakin and Dr Peter Wilson as nomenclature experts (and they all called on the advice of others with even more extensive mycological, botanical and nomenclature skills).
They discovered that Zahlbruckner's 1941 name was indeed correctly expressed and legitimate. The only issue needing correction was the gender of the epithet. Further Galloway's 1983 C. mooreae replacement name was indeed illegitimate (although his corrected spelling "mooreae" was on the money). However, Dan and company also unearthed a morass of issues surrounding the correct way to express Zahlbruckner's name. In fact they came up with three plausible spellings (and admitted there are probably more). The three discussed are:
Corrected spelling 1 (without Latinization):
Caloplaca lucybeatricemooreae Zahlbr. (published
as “L. B. Moorii”).
Corrected spelling 2 (partial Latinization, only endings
latinized):
Caloplaca lucyae-beatriceae-mooreae Zahlbr.
(published as “L. B. Moorii”).
Corrected spelling 3 (full Latinization, based on
“Lucia Beatrix”, genitive “Luciae Beatricis”):
Caloplaca luciae-beatricis-mooreae Zahlbr. (published
as “L. B. Moorii”).
The matter is actually quite complex and as the options result in potentially very long winded epithets the authors make the recommendation that Caloplaca mooreae whilst currently illegitimate is certainly the most succinct and sensible name choice for the lichen. Further, thanks to Galloway's flora treatments it has been the most widely used here in that lichens native range.
It seems then that the next action is to put a proposal forward to conserve the illegitimate replacement name in current use, C. mooreae, against the original replaced name “Caloplaca L. B. Moorii” and all its corrected variants. This proposal is now in preparation.
The paper (if you wish to read it) has just been published in the Ukrainian Botanical Journal.
Blanchon D.J., Wilson P.G., Mosyakin S.L., de Lange P.J. 2025. Nomenclatural problems with corrected orthography and possible solutions: the curious case of “Caloplaca L. B. Moorii” Zahlbr. (Teloschistaceae). Ukrainian Botanical Journal, 82(4): 326−335.
