Morphological, chemical and species delimitation analyses provide new taxonomic insights into two groups of Rinodina

The genus Rinodina (Physciaceae), with approximately 300 species, has been subject to few phylogenetic studies. Consequently taxonomic hypotheses in Rinodina are largely reliant on phenotypic data, while hypotheses incorporating DNA dependent methods remain to be tested. Here we investigate Rinodina degeliana/R. subparieta and the Rinodina mniaraea group, which previously have not been subjected to comprehensive molecular and phenotypic studies. We conducted detailed morphological, anatomical, chemical, molecular phylogenetic and species delimitation studies including 24 newly sequenced specimens. We propose that Rinodina degeliana and R. subparieta are conspecific and that chemical morphs within the R. mniaraea group should be recognized as distinct species. We also propose the placement of the recently described genus Oxnerella in Physciaceae.