Toniniopsis illudens (Nyl.) Kistenich, Timdal, Bendiksby & S. Ekman
Taxon 67, 5: 898, 2018. Basionym: Lecidea illudens Nyl. - Flora, 53: 34, 1870.
Synonyms: Bacidia illudens (Nyl.) Lynge
Distribution:
Description: Thallus crustose, whitish to ash-grey, thin and porrly evident to rather thick, smooth to small-verrucose. Apothecia lecideine, black, sessile and strongly constricted at base, 0.5-0.7(-1) mm across, with an initially urceolate, then flat disc and a smooth, persistent, heavily and distinctly blue-pruinose proper margin. Proper exciple reddish brown to violet in upper and outer parts, colourless within; epithecium blue-green to bright green, K-, N+ violet, with blue granules; hymenium colourless, 65-70 µm high, hemiamyloid, I+ blue turning wine-red; paraphyses simple or forked in upper part, slender, 1.5-2 μm thick at base, the apical cells swollen, up to 4 μm wide; hypothecium dark red-brown and K+ intensifying red at least in upper part. Asci 8-spored, clavate, surrounded by a gelatinous I+ blue coat, with a well-developed I+ blue tholus with an I+ darker blue tube and a well-developed ocular chamber, Bacidia-type. Ascospores (3-)5-9-septate, hyaline, narrowly bacilliform, straight or slightly curved, 23-44(-48) x 2.5-3 µm. Photobiont chlorococcoid. Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances.Note: based on a type from Finland, this species growing on decaying bryophytes on acid substrata also has a few scattered records from the Alps (Switzerland, Austria). To be looked for in the Italian Alps.
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris
Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Predictive model
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris
Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Predictive model