Carassea

Carassea is a fungal genus in the family Cladoniaceae. The genus was circumscribed in 2002 by the Finnish lichenologist Soili Stenroos. A monotypic genus, Carassea contains the single species Carassea connexa, a fruticose lichen. This species, originally named Cladonia connexa, was first documented by Edvard August Vainio, who collected specimens from Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1885, and published a description of the species in the first of his three-volume Monographia Cladoniarum universalis. The Cladoniaceae genera most closely related to Carassea include Pycnothelia and Metus.