First stop will be Caracas, Venezuela, where we will collect not far from the hunting grounds of Augustus Fendler (1813-1883) who lived in Colonia Tovar between 1854 and 1858. Being a professional plant collector, he collected thousands of specimens and sold them to museums in North America and Europe. Two species based on his collections are of particular interest to us: Biatora fendleri and B. prasina, currently known as Phyllopsora fendleri and P. pertexta. Very few recent collections exist, and we need to extract DNA. Read more about this fascinating botanist in the paper by Todzia (1989).

Phyllopsora fendleri, Venezuela (B 60-0035875).

Phyllopsora pertexta, Jamaica (H).