Psorotichia lugubris (A. Massal.) Arnold

Flora, 68: 218, 1885.. Basionym: Stenhammara lugubris A. Massal. - Miscell. Lichenol.: 40, 1856
Synonyms:
Distribution: N - Frl (Nascimbene & al. 2021), TAA.
Description: Thallus crustose, areolate-verruculose, thick, black to dark olive-brown, epruinose, the areoles dying from the base, with a smooth or only slightly rough surface, but often partially eroded, exposing the pale, cottony lower surface. Apothecia usually difficult to observe in non-eroded areoles, immersed to subsessile, 0.3-0.6 mm across, with a blackish, often rough but never rilled disc surrounded by a blackish to brownish, thin proper margin, and an indistinct thalline margin. Proper exciple thin, pale brown in lower part, distinctly thickened and dark brown in upper part; epithecium orange-brown; hymenium colourless, K/I+ blue; paraphyses stout, branched and anastomosing, the apical cells subcapitate; hypothecium colourless or pale yellowish brown, K/I+ blue. Asci 8-spored, cylindrical-clavate, with a rather thick, not amyloid wall, without apical thickening but with an external layer of amyloid apical gel. Ascospores 1-celled, hyaline, ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, 6-12 x 4-8.5 µm. Photobiont cyanobacterial, chroococcoid, single-celled, the cells with a more or less distinct vertical arrangement, surrounded by a brownish gelatinous sheath. Spot tests: all negative. Chemistry: without lichen substances.
Note: on dry surfaces of calcareous rocks with some water seepage after rain; overall distribution poorly known, with a few scattered records from the Alps; the species likely belongs to Metamelanea.
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: rocks
Photobiont: cyanobacteria, coccaceous (e.g. Gloeocapsa)
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Poorly known taxon in need of further study

Commonnes-rarity: (info)

Alpine belt: absent
Subalpine belt: extremely rare
Oromediterranean belt: absent
Montane belt: extremely rare
Submediterranean belt: absent
Padanian area: absent
Humid submediterranean belt: absent
Humid mediterranean belt: absent
Dry mediterranean belt: absent

pH of the substrata:

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Solar irradiation:

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Aridity:

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Eutrophication:

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Poleotolerance:

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Altitudinal distribution:

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Predictive model
Herbarium samples


P.L. Nimis CC BY-SA 4.0
TSB 16661



P.L. Nimis CC BY-SA 4.0
TSB 16661



P.L. Nimis CC BY-SA 4.0
TSB 16661



P.L. Nimis CC BY-SA 4.0
TSB 16661



P.L. Nimis CC BY-SA 4.0
TSB 16661