The genus Solorina, as delimited in the traditional sense, exhibited significant morphological and chemical variations between species. Miadlikowska & Lutzoni (2004) had already demonstrated that the genus was polyphyletic. The phylogenetic analyses by Zheng & al. (1995), based on three molecular loci, brought to the recognition of two genera: Solorina s.str., including 2 species with a bright orange lower surface containing solorinic acid, and the new genus Pseudosolorina, which includes species with white or brownish lower surfaces, mostly without secondary metabolites; the two genera also differ in spore ornamentation. The European species were treated by Martinez & Burgaz (1998). This key includes all taxa known to occur in Italy (Nimis 2016) plus 2 taxa which are known from adjacent areas in the Alps (Nimis & al. 2018), and which are likely to occur also in Italy, for a total of 8 infrageneric taxa.

References

Martinez I., Burgaz A.R. 1998. Revision of the genus Solorina (Lichenes) in Europe, based on spore size variation. Ann. Bot. Fenn., 35: 137-142.
Miadlikowska J., Lutzoni F. 2004. Phylogenetic classification of Peltigeralean fungi (Peltigerales, Ascomycota). Am. J. Bot., 91, 3: 449-464.
Nimis P.L. 2016. The Lichens of Italy. A Second Annotated Catalogue. EUT, Trieste, 739 pp.
Nimis P.L., Hafellner J., Roux C., Clerc P., Mayrhofer H., Martellos S., Bilovitz P.O. 2018. The Lichens of the Alps. An Annotated Catalogue. Mycokeys, 31: 1-634.
Zheng T., Wang L, Ai M.,Gan Y., Fan R., Zhang Y., Worthy F.R., Jin J., Meng W., Zhang S., Wang X. 2025. Taxonomic revision of Solorina (Peltigeraceae, Ascomycota) reveals a new genus and three new species. J. Fungi 2025, 11, 169.

Last modified: March, 14, 2025

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