Reichlingia anombrophila
Reichlingia anombrophila is a rare oceanic species that is known from three localities in Rogaland and Vestland. It is characterized by immersed, elongated to branched apothecia with thin white pruina, and a pale olive grey thallus with trentepohlioid photobiont. The spores are 2–3-transversely septate, and pale brown and warted when old. The apical cell is enlarged.
- Innhold
- Description
- Ecology
- Distribution in Norway and the Nordic countries
- Global distribution
- Similar species
Reichlingia anombrophila collected from an old Quercus sp. at Sigmundstad N in Hjelmeland (O-L-206736).
Description
Thallus
The thallus is pale grey with a green or olive tint when fresh, and has a matt, compact to felty surface. It is up to 70 µm thick and immersed in the bark to superficial. The margin is not determinate or bordered by a thin brown line when in contact with other lichens. The photobiont is a species of the family Trentepohliaceae.
Fruitbodies
The apothecia are level with the thallus surface or weakly raised, pale brown in color and usually covered in a thin white pruina. They are angular with rounded edges or elongate, and are often arranged in irregularly branched or star-shaped aggregations of 0.2–1.2 × 0.1–0.2 mm. They are 45–100 μm tall.
The epithecium is pale greyish to medium brown.
The hymenium is 35–55 μm tall and colorless.
The hypothecium is colorless to pale brown.
The paraphysoids are ca 1 μm wide. Their tips are widened to 2.5 µm in the epithecium, more or less brown pigmented and covered by dark brown pigment plaques.
The asci are of the Arthonia-type and 8-spored.
The spores are 12–15 × 4–5 μm in size, obovoid, and divided by 2–3 transverse septa. The apical cell is enlarged. Old spores are pale brown and warted.
Anamorph
Pycnidia have not been observed on material from Norway. Based on material from the British Islands they are 40–80 μm in size, immersed in the thallus and with a red-brown wall. The conidia are rod-shaped and 3–5 × 0.7–1 μm in size.
Chemistry
The thallus does not react with C, K, KC, Pd or UV (C–, K–, KC–, Pd–, UV–). 2'-O-methylperlatolic acid has been identified on a specimen from Norway.
The brown pigments in the epithecium and the wall of the pycnidia changes to pale green in K solution.
Reichlingia anombrophila collected from an old Quercus sp. at Sigmundstad N in Hjelmeland (O-L-206736).
Ecology
Reichlingia anombrophila is an oceanic species that usually grows on dry, rain-shaded bark of trees and shrubs in forests, woodlands and parks. It can be found both on the rough bark of old trees and more rarely on thin, smooth bark of young trees and shrubs. The species is rare and appears to be sensitive to air-pollution and eutrophication.
In Norway, R. anombrophila is only known from three localities in Vestlandet. It has been found on dry rough bark of an old oak (Quercus sp.) tree in a wooded meadow, and on thin smooth bark of holly (Ilex aquifolium) below a large boulder in a humid coastal Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forest.
Distribution in Norway and the Nordic countries
Reichlingia anombrophila is known from Hjelmeland in Rogaland and from Florø and Tysnes in Vestland. In the Nordic countries, it is further known from Denmark and Öland in Sweden.
Global distribution
Reichlingia anombrophila is widespread in western Europe and known from Madeira, the British Islands, Denmark, and Sweden. It has also been found in Italy.
Similar species
Reichlingia anombrophila is difficult to confuse with any other species in Norway. The European R. zwackhii is morphologically similar and has the same thallus chemistry. This species can be distinguished from R. anombrophila by the larger spores, which are 16–24 × 5–7 μm in size and have 3–4 transverse septa.
Among the species with transversely septate spores and an enlarged apical cell, Coniocarpon differs by the crystalline red to purple pigmentation in the fruitbodies that dissolves in K with a clear purple solution.
Arthonia stellaris has a pale brownish thallus with a compact surface, fruitbodies without pruina, and larger spores, which are 13–24 × 5–9 μm in size and have 3–4 transverse septa.
Literature
Cannon P, Ertz D, Frisch A, Aptroot A, Chambers S, Coppins BJ, Sanderson N, Simkin J and Wolseley P (2020). Arthoniales: Arthoniaceae. Revisions of British and Irish Lichens 1: 1–48.
Frisch A, Klepsland J, Palice Z, Bendiksby M, Tønsberg T and Holien H (2020). New and noteworthy lichens and lichenicolous fungi from Norway. Graphis Scripta 32(1): 1–47.
Coppins BJ (1989). Notes on the Arthoniaceae in the British Isles. Lichenologist 21: 195–216.