ITALIC 8.0

Micarea incrassata Hedl.

Bih. K. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl., Afd. 3, 18: 82, 1892.

Synonyms:

Distribution: N - TAA (Bilovitz & al. 2014b).

Description: Thallus crustose, episubstratic, consisting of straw-coloured to grey-brown, convex, confluent, up to 0.3 mm wide areoles, usually with brown cephalodia resembling areoles and containing Nostoc. Apothecia micareoid, black to brown-black, 0.3-0.8 mm across, sometimes confluent into up to 1.5 mm wide aggregates, partly immersed, with a convex disc, without a proper margin. Proper exciple indistinct; epithecium scarcely differentiated from the hymenium, greenish, K-, N+ red; hymenium colourless in lower part, greenish in upper part, 40-50 μm high, the pigmented parts N+ red; paraphyses numerous, sparingly branched, (1-)1.5-2 μm thick at mid-level, the apical cells to 3 μm wide; hypothecium dark reddish brown, 150-400 μm high, K- N+ bright orange-brown. Asci 8-spored, clavate to cylindrical-clavate, in K/I with a blue outer layer and apical dome and unstained wall, the dome with an apical cushion, 40-45 x 10-13 μm. Ascospores 0-1(-2) septate, hyaline, ellipsoid to elongate-fusiform, (8.5-)10-15(-18) x (3.5-)4-5 μm. Pycnidia rare, black, 0.2-0.25 mm in diam., immersed or emergent, with fissured ostioles and sometimes with a white mass of conidia, the walls blue-green, reddish brown at base. Macroconidia straight or slightly curved, 30-55 x 1-1.3 μm, microconidia bacilliform, 6-9 x 1-1.3 μm. Photobiont micareoid, the cells 4-7 μm in diam, often attacked by haustoria. Spot tests: K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances.

Note: a widespread circumboreal species also known from the Southern Hemisphere, growing on acid soil in mountain heaths; apparently rare in the Alps, but perhaps overlooked.

Growth form: Crustose

Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris

Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia

Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

Commonnes-rarity: (info)

Alpine belt: extremely rare

Subalpine belt: extremely rare

Oromediterranean belt: absent

Montane belt: rare

Submediterranean belt: absent

Padanian area: absent

Humid submediterranean belt: absent

Humid mediterranean belt: absent

Dry mediterranean belt: absent

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

Curtis Randall Björk CC BY-SA 4.0

British Columbia, Whistler, apex of the Seventh Heaven ski run Date: 2007-08-00 Photographed from specimen (Björk 14788, UBC), among rocks on windblown ridge

Curtis Randall Björk – CC BY-SA 4.0

British Columbia, Whistler, apex of the Seventh Heaven ski run Date: 2007-08-00 Photographed from specimen (Björk 14788, UBC), among rocks on windblown ridge