ITALIC 8.0

Swinscowia alpestris (Vězda) S.H. Jiang, Lücking & Sérus.

in Hongsanan & al., Fungal Divers.: 10.1007/s13225-020-00462-6, 137, 2020. Basionym: Porina faginea var. alpestris Vězda - Acta Mus. Silesiae, Ser. A, 10: 5, 1961

Synonyms: Arthopyrenia faginea (Schaer.) Swinscow var. alpestris (Vězda) Swinscow; Strigula alpestris (Vězda) Hafellner; Strigula stigmatella (Ach.) R.C. Harris var. alpestris (Vězda) Coppins

Distribution:

Description: Thallus crustose, moderately thick, often verruculose, greenish grey to ash-grey. Perithecia black, 0.3-0.45 μm across, globose, one-third to half-immersed, partly covered by a thin thalline layer when young. Involucrellum dark brown, dimidiate, hardly distinct from exciple and appearing as a thickening of its upper part, the latter colourless to pale brown in upper part; hamathecium of thread-like paraphysoids which are mostly simple, and only rarely branched and anastomosing, except where adjacent to the exciple. Asci 8-spored, narrowly clavate, bitunicate-fissitunicate, shortly stalked at base, the apex thickened into a tholus, with a narrow ocular chamber, I-. Ascospores (5-)7(-9)-septate, hyaline, fusiform, 25-37.5(-43.5) x (5-)5.5-7.5(-8) μm, rarely also with a longitudinal septum, without a perispore. Photobiont trentepohlioid. Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances.

Note: a critical taxon, perhaps just a muscicolous form of S. stigmatella, found on plant debris and encrusting bryophytes, with a boreal-montane to -alpine distribution, reported from Scotland and the Central European mountains; from the Alps there are several scattered records (Austria), but the species might have been not recognised and/or undercollected elsewhere. To be looked for in Italy.

Growth form: Crustose

Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris

Photobiont: Trentepohlia

Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

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

Index Fungorum GBIF