ITALIC 8.0

Heppia despreauxii (Mont.) Tuck.

Gen. Lich.: 46, 1872. Basionym: Solorina despreauxii Mont. - Hist. Nat. Isl. Canar., 3: 104, 1840.

Synonyms: Heppia gigantea Egea & Llimona; Heppia paulina Marton; Psora lobatoplicata B. de Lesd.

Distribution: N - Lig. S - Si (Grillo & Caniglia 2005).

Description: Thallus squamulose, heteromerous, 340-400 µm thick, greenish or yellowish olive, more rarely ochraceous brown, sometimes pruinose, with pale punctiform depressions on the upper surface which may become slightly elongated, forming small cracks in a reticulate pattern. Squamules subpeltate, 2.5-7 mm wide, at first flat, then concave, contiguous, with rounded ends and down-turned edges, attached by a mat of 10-14 µm thick, colourless rhizohyphae, forming 1.4-2.7(-5) cm wide, convex rosettes. Upper cortex paraplectenchymatous, (25-)50-75 µm thick, covered with a 10-15 µm thick epinecral layer; medulla poorly developed, of anticlinally arranged hyphae; lower cortex absent or restricted to the margins. Apothecia without a thalline margin, semi-immersed in the squamules, 0.5-1.5(-2) mm across, with a dark reddish brown, concave disc, and a thin to indistinct proper margin. Proper exciple very thin, colourless; epithecium brownish, K-; hymenium colourless, 120-180 µm high, I+ blue slowly turning reddish; paraphyses simple, lax, 4-6 µm thick at base, the apical cells 8-10 µm wide; hypothecium colourless, I+ blue. Asci 8-spored, thin-walled, narrowly clavate to subcylindrical, prototunicate. Ascospores 1-celled, hyaline, ellipsoid, thin-walled, (18-)20-29(-31) x (7-)9-12 µm. Pycnidia dark, immersed. Conidia fusiform. Photobiont cyanobacterial, Scytonema-like. Spot tests: all negative. Chemistry: without lichen substances.

Note: the Ligurian record is the northernmost known for this Mediterranean-Macaronesian lichen growing on clay soil in dry, open grasslands. According to Timdal (in litt.) Psora lobatoplicata is a likely synonym of this species.

Growth form: Squamulose

Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris

Photobiont: cyanobacteria, filamentous (e.g. Nostoc, Scytonema)

Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

Subcontinental: restricted to areas with a dry-subcontinental climate (e.g. dry Alpine valleys, parts of Mediterranean Italy)

Commonnes-rarity: (info)

Alpine belt: absent

Subalpine belt: absent

Oromediterranean belt: absent

Montane belt: absent

Submediterranean belt: absent

Padanian area: absent

Humid submediterranean belt: absent

Humid mediterranean belt: rare

Dry mediterranean belt: very rare

pH of the substrata:

1

2

3

4

5

(info)

Solar irradiation:

1

2

3

4

5

(info)

Aridity:

1

2

3

4

5

(info)

Eutrophication:

1

2

3

4

5

(info)

Poleotolerance:

0

1

2

3

(info)

Altitudinal distribution:

1

2

3

4

5

6

(info)

Predictive model

Index Fungorum GBIF

Manuel Gil

Spain, Canary Islands, Lanzarote

Manuel Gil

Spain, Canary Islands, Lanzarote

Manuel Gil

Spain, Canary Islands, Lanzarote

Manuel Gil

Spain, Canary Islands, Lanzarote

Felix Schumm - CC BY-SA 3.0

[ABL77805], Brazil, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bodoquena, Dente de Cão summit,in Atlantic rain forest on exposed limestone. 20°47’´05'' S, 56°45’03'' W, 450 m. Leg. A. Aptroot (no 77805), 7.11.2018, det. A. Aptroot, 2019