Rhaphidicyrtis trichosporella (Nyl.) Vain.
Acta Soc. Fauna Flora Fenn. 49, 2: 217, 1921. Basionym: Mycoporum trichosporellum Nyl. - Flora, 57: 14, 1874.
Synonyms:
Distribution:
Description: Thallus crustose, endosubstratic or very thinly episubstratic smooth to pulverulent, creamy-white to grey, continuous, without a distinct prothallus. Perithecia black, smooth, 0.15-0.2 mm across, more or less immersed in the substratum, globose, with a central and slightly depressed ostiolum. Involucrellum dark brown, c. 30 µm thick below the ostiolar region, c. 60 µm thick and darker near the ostiole, clypeate, composed of bark material and dark brown, thin-walled, smooth hyphae, K-; exciple 15-30 µm thick, continuous, dark brown in outer part, colourless in inner part, consisting of a pseudoparenchymatous tissue of isodiametrical, mesodermatous, radially compressed cells; hamathecium of colourless, branched and anastomosing, 1.5-2 µm wide paraphysoids, and of < 2 µm thick periphyses in the ostiolar canal, the hymenial gel K/I+ deep blue. Asci 8-spored, ripening sequentially, cylindrical, short-stalked, with two distinct wall layers, the outer one thin and smooth, the inner one thicker at the apex, without an internal apical beak, I-, with fasciculated or helically twisted spores. Ascospores 7-9-multiseptate, hyaline, filiform to somewhat sigmoid, (60-) 75-95 x 2-3 µm, thin-walled, with attenuated apices, without appendages or gelatinous sheaths. Photobiont trentepohlioid. Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Chemistry: not known, probably without lichen substances.Note: an inconspicuous species growing on the mostly smooth bark of deciduous trees in old forests, known from several stations in western, northern and Central Europe, often locally common, but easily overlooked (see e.g. Ekman & al. 2013, Cannon & al. 2023). To be looked for in Italy.
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: bark
Photobiont: Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Most common in areas with a humid-warm climate (e.g. most of Tyrrenian Italy)
Predictive model
Source: Ekman, S., Aguirre-Hudson, B., Arup, U., Fritz, Ö. & Svensson, M. 2013: Rhaphidicyrtis trichosporella new to Sweden. Graphis Scripta 25: 6–11. Stockholm. ISSN 0901-7593.
Rhaphidicyrtis trichosporella on a Fagus trunk at Mårås (Långaryd par., Småland).
Note the black perithecia and pinkish hue of the thallus, caused by a Trentepohlia photobiont.
Photo: Örjan Fritz, 16 April 2012.
Source: Vězda A. (1968) Fol. Geobot. Phytotax. 3(4): 363-406 Taxonomische Revision der Gattung Thelopsis Nyl. (lichenisierte Fungi).
Growth form: Crustose
Substrata: bark
Photobiont: Trentepohlia
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
Most common in areas with a humid-warm climate (e.g. most of Tyrrenian Italy)
Predictive model
Source: Ekman, S., Aguirre-Hudson, B., Arup, U., Fritz, Ö. & Svensson, M. 2013: Rhaphidicyrtis trichosporella new to Sweden. Graphis Scripta 25: 6–11. Stockholm. ISSN 0901-7593.
Rhaphidicyrtis trichosporella on a Fagus trunk at Mårås (Långaryd par., Småland). Note the black perithecia and pinkish hue of the thallus, caused by a Trentepohlia photobiont. Photo: Örjan Fritz, 16 April 2012.
