Ramboldia is primarily a Southern Hemisphere genus of c. 30 species, occurring in cool-temperate to tropical regions on bark, decorticated wood or rock. The genus, currently placed into the Ramboldiaceae, differs from Pyrrhospora (see Hafellner 1993) in the narrowly ellipsoid to bacilliform ascospores that remain hyaline, and in the prosoplectenchymatous rather than euthyplectechymatous exciple (Kantvilas & Elix 1994). The genus was emended by Kalb & al. (2008), who included also species containing anthraquinones in the apothecia (Pyrrhospora has 7-chloroemodin and xanthones, the Ramboldia russula-group has russulone and haematommone).
The six species of Ramboldia reported from Italy (Nimis 2016) are included in the present key, but one of them, the tropical Ramboldia russula, is of dubious occurrence in Europe.

References

Hafellner J. 1993. Die Gattung Pyrrhospora in Europa. Eine erste Übersicht mit einem Bestimmungsschlüssel der Arten nebst Bemerkungen zu einigen aussereuropäischen Taxa (lichenisierte Ascomycotina, Lecanorales). Herzogia, 9: 725-747.
Kalb K., Staiger B., Elix J.A., Lange U., Lumbsch H.T. 2008. A new circumscription of the genus Ramboldia (Lecanoraceae, Ascomycota) based on morphological and molecular evidence. Nova Hedwigia, 86: 23-42.
Kantvilas G., Elix J.A. 1994. Ramboldia, a new genus in the lichen family Lecanoraceae. Bryologist, 97, 3: 296-304.
Nimis P.L. 2016. The lichens of Italy. A second annotated catalogue. EUT, Trieste, 740 pp.

Last modified: October, 1, 2021

Project Dryades, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste - CC BY-SA 4.0