ITALIC 8.0

Staurothele maculosa Breuss & F. Berger

Austrian J. Mycol., 30: 44, 2022.

Synonyms:

Distribution:

Description: Thallus crustose, thin, continuous to rimose, pale greenish grey with small deeper green flecks. Upper cortex indistinctly delimited; algal layer 50-80 µm thick, discontinuous, the algal cells arranged in roundish clusters (corresponding with the green flecks of the upper surface); medulla inconspicuous, obscured by soil particles and dissolved into hyaline hyphae extending into the soil. Perithecia black, subglobose, 0.35-0.45 mm in diam., scattered, fully immersed or with a slightly projecting ostiolar region. Involucrellum covering 1/3 to 1/2 of the perithecium, 50-80 µm thick, fully appressed or slightly spreading in lower part; exciple pale to medium brown, c. 40 µm thick; hymenial algae bacilliform, (5-)7-12(-15) x 3-3.5 µm; periphysoids 40-50 µm long and 3-4 µm thick, septate, rarely branched, with more or less distinctly clavate, up to 5 µm wide terminal cells; interascal filaments absent, the hymenial gel hemiamyloid. Asci (6-)8-spored, clavate, the wall thickened above, with an ocular chamber, after dehiscence with a delicate extruded endotunica, I-, K/I-. Ascospores muriform, hyaline, 20-32 x 10-16 µm. Photobiont chlorococcoid (Stichococcus-like), present in both thallus and hymenium. Spot tests: K-, C-, KC-, P-, UV-. Chemistry: without lichen substances.

Note: a recently-described terricolous species, hitherto known only from southern Spain, growing on gypsiferous clayey soil along a trampled footpath, associated with bryophytes (Breuss & Berger 2022). To be looked for in Italy, especially in the gypsiferous outcrops of Sicily.

Growth form: Crustose

Substrata: soil, terricolous mosses, and plant debris

Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia

Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

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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

Source: Breuss O., Berger F. 2022. A new Staurothele species (lichenized Ascomycota, Verrucariaceae) from Spain. Österr. Z. Pilzk., 30: 43-47.

Spain
. Staurothele maculosa. Holotype. Habitus. Width of photograph 6 mm. Phot. O. BREUSS.

Source: Breuss O., Berger F. 2022. A new Staurothele species (lichenized Ascomycota, Verrucariaceae) from Spain. Österr. Z. Pilzk., 30: 43-47.

Spain
Fig. 2. Staurothele maculosa. Holotype. Muriform ascospores. Width of photograph 70 µm. Phot. F. BERGER.