ITALIC 8.0

Chaenotheca chlorella (Ach.) Müll. Arg.

Mém. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Genève, 16: 360, 1862. Basionym: Calicium chlorellum Ach. - Meth. Lich.: 89, 1803.

Synonyms: Calicium phaeocephalum var. flavum Harm.; Chaenotheca carthusiae (Harm.) Lettau; Chaenotheca suzai Nádv.

Distribution: N - Frl (Puntillo & Puntillo 2009), Ven (Puntillo & Puntillo 2009), TAA (Nascimbene 2014, Nascimbene & Marini 2015, Trindade & al. 2021), Lomb (Puntillo & Puntillo 2009), Lig (Puntillo & Puntillo 2009). C - Tosc (Puntillo & Puntillo 2009), Sar (Puntillo & Puntillo 2009). S - Bas (Potenza & al. 2014), Cal (Puntillo 1994, 1996, Puntillo & Puntillo 2009).

Description: Thallus crustose, usually well-developed and episubstratic, ecorticate, verrucose to minutely granular, green to grey-green. Apothecia short-stalked, pin-like, shining black but covered in a bright yellow pruina at least in the upper part of stalk and the lower side of capitulum. Stalk 0.7-1 mm high, 0.05-0.08 mm thick, of periclinally arranged, medium brown hyphae. Capitulum broadly obovoid to lenticular, with a more or less well-developed excipulum of periclinally arranged hyphae, continuous with the stalk tissue. Mazaedium well-developed, brown; hypothecium medium brown, with a strongly convex upper surface. Asci cylindrical, clearly stalked, formed singly, dissolving early, with uniseriately arranged ascospores. Ascospores 1-celled, brown to pale brown, globose to broadly ellipsoid, 4.5-9 x 3-4 µm, the wall with a rough ornamentation of irregular cracks. Photobiont chlorococcoid, with rectangular cells (Stichococcus) or rarely trebouxioid. Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances; yellow pruina consisting of vulpinic acid.

Note: optimum on old oaks inside forests, in fissures of the bark, sometimes on decorticated trunks, also of conifers, especially on dry undersides and inside hollow trunks. Widespread, but rare. It is included in the Italian red list of epiphytic lichens as “Endangered” (Nascimbene & al. 2013c).

Growth form: Crustose

Substrata: bark and lignum

Photobiont: green algae other than Trentepohlia

Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

In underhangs rarely wetted by rain

Commonnes-rarity: (info)

Alpine belt: absent

Subalpine belt: absent

Oromediterranean belt: absent

Montane belt: extremely rare

Submediterranean belt: very rare

Padanian area: absent

Humid submediterranean belt: very rare

Humid mediterranean belt: absent

Dry mediterranean belt: absent

pH of the substrata:

1

2

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4

5

(info)

Solar irradiation:

1

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5

(info)

Aridity:

1

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4

5

(info)

Eutrophication:

1

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4

5

(info)

Poleotolerance:

0

1

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3

(info)

Altitudinal distribution:

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6

(info)

Predictive model

Herbarium samples

Index Fungorum GBIF

P.N. Nimis CC BY-SA 4.0

TSB 21832

Curtis Randall Björk – CC BY-SA 4.0

British Columbia, Clearwater Valley Date: 2014-05-04 Corticolous, trunk of large Populus trichocarpa in humid old-growth forest