The genus was circumscribed in 2013 by lichenologists Ulf Arup, Ulrik Søchting, and Patrik Frödén as part of a molecular phylogenetics-led major restructuring of the Teloschistaceae. It was segregated from the large genus Caloplaca, which was shown by several prior studies to be polyphyletic. The authors assigned Orientophila subscopularis as the type species. The genus name, which means "fond of the east", refers to the East Asian distribution of its species. Orientophila is in the subfamily Xanthorioideae of the family Teloschistaceae.
Description
The thalli of Orientophila species have a crust-like appearance that can be either smooth or slightly lobed. Chemically, it contains compounds called anthraquinones. Its outer protective layer, or cortex, has a paraplectenchymatous tissue structure. The reproductive structures, or apothecia, are of the zeorine type and also contain anthraquinones. The spores produced by this genus are polaridiblastic (typical for the family Teloschistaceae), and have a medium to long dividing line known as a septum. Structures called pycnidia, which are involved in asexual reproduction, have not been observed in this genus.
123Kondratyuk, S.Y.; Lőkös, L.; Farkas, E.; Jang, S.-H.; Liu, D.; Halda, J.; Persson, P.-E.; Hansson, M.; Kärnefelt, I.; Thell, A.; Fačkovcová, Z.; Yamamoto, Y.; Hur, J.-S. (2019). "New and noteworthy lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi 9". Acta Botanica Hungarica. 61 (3–4): 325–367. doi:10.1556/034.61.2019.3-4.6.
123Kondratyuk, S.Y.; Lőkös, L.; Kärnefelt, I.; Thell, A.; Elix, J.A.; Oh, S.-O.; Hur, J.-S. (2016). "Three new Orientophila species (Teloschistaceae, Ascomycota) from Eastern Asia". Graphis Scripta. 28 (1–2): 50–58.
↑Frolov, Ivan V.; Vondrák, Jan; Konoreva, Liudmila A.; Chesnokov, Sergey V.; Himelbrant, Dmitry E.; Arup, Ulf; Stepanchikova, Irina S.; Prokopiev, Ilya A.; Yakovchenko, Lidia S.; Davydov, Evgeny A. (2021). "Three new species of crustose Teloschistaceae in Siberia and the Far East". The Lichenologist. 53 (3): 233–243. Bibcode:2021ThLic..53..233F. doi:10.1017/s0024282921000177.