Type: Sri Lanka. Central Province: Ramboda, Almquist, E. s.n. (H-NYL 35555 – holotype, S – isotype, fide Hale 1965).

Description. Thallus saxicolous; upper surface whitish gray to ivory, dull to ± shiny, epruinose, emaculate, occasionally cracked, but not forming a distinctly reticulate pattern; abundantly sorediate; soralia marginal, linear to labriform (± crescent-shaped), or subcapitate; soredia ± granular, typically discolored by a dark gray tinge, pale inside; lobes moderate-sized to large, 5–8(–12) mm wide, rotund, axils incised, margins abundantly ciliate; cilia long and slender, 0.6–5 mm long, black, mostly simple, very rarely branched; lower surface with a broad erhizinate, ~ 2–5 mm wide, deep brown zone (not mottled white), moderately to densely rhizinate and blackened towards the center; rhizines long, slender, black, simple to sparsely branched; medulla white. Apothecia and pycnidia not observed among the Galapagos specimens.

Chemistry. Cortex with atranorin [P+ yellow, K+ yellow, KC–, C–, UV–]; medulla with atranorin, alectoronic, α-collatolic and β-alectoronic acid [P–, K–, KC+ rosé, quickly turning orange, C–, UV+ greenish blue].

Ecology and distribution. Oceania, Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America (Hale 1965; Winnem 1975; Awasthi 1976; Elix 1994; Louwhoff & Elix 1999; Kurokawa & Lai 2001; Brodo et al. 2001; Spielmann & Marcelli 2009; Egan et al. 2016). Previously reported from continental Ecuador (Cevallos Solórzano 2012); new for Galapagos, where the species has been found on exposed lava flows, boulders and cliffs of the dry zone and transition zone.

Notes. Parmotrema rampoddense is morphologically similar to P. sorediiferum (Hale 1986); the two species are most reliably distinguished by their spores, which are larger in P. sorediiferum (22–24 μm) than in P. rampoddense (10–12 μm). All Galapagos material is sterile, but the specimens generally have the longer cilia characteristic of P. rampoddense (3–6 mm) in comparison with those typical for P. sorediiferum (2–4 mm). Additionally, it seems that P. sorediiferum occasionally forms sorediate pustules (Kukwa et al. 2012), which were not observed in any of the specimens here.