Lecania madida Reese Næsb. & Björk
in Reese Næsborg, Mycologia, 100: 410, 2008
Synonyms:
Distribution:
Description: Thallus crustose, episubstratic or rarely hemiendosubstratic, irregularly rimose to areolate, granular to warted, white, cream-coloured or grey, sometimes with a greenish tinge. Apothecia lecanorine, (0.2-)0.25-0.5(-0.6) mm across, sessile and constricted at base, sometimes crowded and deformed by mutual compression, with an initially flat, but soon becoming convex, pale pink, pale red-brown, orange-brown, red-brown, or darker brown disc which turns pale and translucent (with pronounced dark spots) when wet, and a thin, sometimes finally excluded thalline margin. Exciple 37-44 µm wide, the medullary part colourless or brownish; epithecium colourless to pale red-brown, rarely darker, K- or rarely K+ weakly reddish; hymenium colourless to pale brown 40-60 µm high; paraphyses with swollen, 3.0-4.5(-5.5) µm wide apical cells; hypothecium colourless. Asci 8-spored, clavate, with a K/I+ blue apical dome penetrated by a narrow, K/I- apical cushion surrounded by a narrow, deeply K/I+ blue zone, the wall K/I- but surrounded by an I+ red-brown, K/I+ blue outer layer, the ocular chamber relatively small, Biatora-type. Ascospores 1-septate, hyaline, ellipsoid to fusiform, (9.6-)11-13(-16.2) x (2.9-)3-4(-4.4) µm, straight. Photobiont chlorococcoid, Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances.Note: a species described from the Pacific Northwest of North America, recently reported from Scandinavia by Svensson & al. (2024), who claim that identical sequences were generated from a specimen collected in Austria, so that the species is likely to be more widespread in Europe, but overlooked or confused with similar species. It grows on bark in very humid sites, such as in swamps, near waterfalls and along rivers. To be looked for in Italy.
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: bark
Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Predictive model
Curtis Randall Björk – CC BY-SA 4.0
British Columbia, Clearwater Valley Photographed from holotype specimen, UBC
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: bark
Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Predictive model
