Ephebe multispora (E. Dahl) Henssen

Symb. Bot. Upsal., 18, 1: 46, 1963. Basionym: Spilonematopsis multispora E. Dahl - Meddr Grønland, Biosc. 150, 2: 34, 1950
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Distribution:
Description: Thallus minutely fruticose-filamentous but appearing subcrustose, brown, forming up to 2 mm wide but often cofluent, loose cushions, consisting of soft, c. 1 mm long, 15-20(-40) μm thick, at first adnate, but soon erect filaments branching from the base, attached by a basal disc. Thallus (in section) ecorticate, the mycobiont cells loosely paraplectenchymatous, short-celled, running through the photobiont gelatinous sheaths in a right angle. Apothecia rare, inconspicuous, globose, to 0.1 mm across, developing from pycnidia on apical swellings on the branches, with a punctiform, dark brown disc and a minutely spiny thalline margin. Proper exciple poorly developed; epithecium brownish; hymenium colourless, gelatinous, 70-100 μm high, I+ blue-green, K/I+ blue; paraphyses sparingly branched, c.1.5 μm thick, the apical cells thickened; hypothecium colourless, dense. Asci (8-)12-16-spored, cylindrical-obclavate, thin-walled, with a K/I+ blue outer layer, without apical dome. Ascospores 1-celled, hyaline, subglobose, 4-6(-7) x 3-5 μm. Pycnidia rare, developing terminally from the filaments. Conidia hyaline, bacilliform, 2-3 x c. 1 μm. Photobiont cyanobacterial (Stigonema), the photobiont trichomes with true branching, i.e. side branchlets formed by periclinal cell divisions in the trichome, reacting I-. Spot tests: all negative. Chemistry: without lichen substances.
Note: this is the smallest of Ephebe-species, with thalli recalling a Stigonema-cushion; based on a type from Greenland, it is found on humid siliceous rocks; a mainly Arctic species, very rare in the Alps, being known only from the Eastern Alps (Austria); to be looked for in the Italian Alps.
Growth form: Fruticose filamentous
Substrata: rocks
Photobiont: cyanobacteria, filamentous (e.g. Nostoc, Scytonema)
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual
On otherwise dry surfaces with short periods of water seepage after rain

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Predictive model

Types in Herbarium O (Oslo) – Source: http://nhm2.uio.no/typephotos/lichens/typephotoS.php?f=O-L-000811e_s.jpg