Ephebe hispidula (Ach.) Horw.

Hand-list Lich. Gr. Brit.: 6, 1912. Basionym: Cornicularia hispidula Ach - Lich. Univ.: 617, 1810
Synonyms: Ephebe spinulosa Th. Fr.
Distribution:
Description: Thallus microfruticose-filamentous, brown-black to black, dark-green to brown when wet, attached by a narrow gelatinous holdfast, consisting of terete, pointed filaments with numerous short, spinule-like side branches, (25-)50 µm thick in apical parts, 75-100(-110) µm thick in basal parts, forming up to 3 cm wide rosettes. Thallus (in section) ecorticate, the mycobiont cells loosely paraplectenchymatous, short-celled. Apothecia rare, up to 0.25 mm across, sessile, terminal, developing from pycnidia on swellings on the branches, with an initially punctiform, later somehow expanded, dark brown disc, a persistent thalline margin and a distinct, blackish green proper margin. Proper exciple well-developed, mostly colourless in lower part, brownish in upper part, up to 50 µm wide; epithecium reddish brown, hymenium gelatinous, colourless, I+ blue-green, K/I+ blue; paraphyses sparingly branched, the apices thickened; hypothecium colourless. Asci (8-)16-spored, cylindrical-obclavate, with a very thin wall disintegrating or opening by apical ruptures, -type. Ascospores 1-celled, hyaline, ovoid, 7-10 x 4-5 µm. Pycnidia rare, black, developing laterally from the filaments. Conidia bacilliform, 2-3 x 1(-2) 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: on siliceous boulders along streams and small rivers; most records are from Northern Europe, with a single record from the Central Alps (Switzerland), which needs confirmation.
Growth form: Fruticose filamentous
Substrata: rocks
Photobiont: cyanobacteria, filamentous (e.g. Nostoc, Scytonema)
Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

pH of the substrata:

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Eutrophication:

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Poleotolerance:

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Altitudinal distribution:

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Predictive model


Curtis Randall Björk – CC BY-SA 4.0
Clearwater Valley, B.C. Growing on a basalt boulder in mixed conifer-deciduous forest
2011-05-01



Curtis Randall Björk – CC BY-SA 4.0
Clearwater Valley, B.C. Growing on a basalt boulder in mixed conifer-deciduous forest
2011-05-01