Scientists at the University of Liège in Belgium — Emmanuel Serusiaux, Nicolas Magain — together with Dutch scientist Pieter van den Boom have discovered a new species of lichen of the genus Ramalina and have named it in honor of Dr. Arsen Gasparyan, head of the scientific group for lichen research and conservation at the Takhtajyan Institute of Botany of Armenia’s Academy of Sciences: Ramalina Arsenii.
According to a communiqué issued by the Academy, the results of the European scientists’ research have been published in the scientific journal The Lichenologist of Cambridge University. The genus Ramalina comprises some 200 species of lichen, and the new species, discovered in the mountainous regions of France, Switzerland and Spain, is a species that grows on rocks.
