ITALIC 8.0

Celothelium lutescens F. Berger & Aptroot

Herzogia, 13: 151, 1998.

Synonyms:

Distribution:

Description: Thallus crustose, endosubstratic, poorly evident, doubtfully lichenized. Perithecia black, shiny, brittle, smooth, scattered or in small clusters, circular to ellipsoid, 0.15-0.3(-0.5) mm across, at first immersed, then projecting, hemispherical to flattened. Involucrellum dark brown, brittle, sometimes covering groups of perithecia, composed of bark material mixed with reddish-brown, thick-walled cells, K-, reaching the base of the perithecia; exciple colourless in lower part, yellowish green and K+ deep yellow in lower part; paraphysoids <2 μm thick, periphyses absent; hymenial gel I-. Asci 8-spored, arising from the sides of the perithecium and arranged horizontally, cylindrical, bitunicate, the outer layer thin and smooth, the inner without an apparent internal apical beak, I- but with a meniscus staining I+ dark blue near the apex. Ascospores 5-7-septate, hyaline, thread-like to narrowly clavate, sometimes helically twisted in the asci, (36-)50-70(-78) x (2-)3-4(-5) μm, thin-walled. Photobiont probably absent, but thallus reported to be loosely associated with trentepohlioid and even chlorococcoid algae. Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-; exciple K+ deep yellow. Chemistry: thallus without lichen substances; exciple with an unidentified K+ yellow pigment.

Note: a doubtfully lichenized species growing on the bark of Prunus, known from Austria, Germany and the Ukraine (Berger & Aptroot 1998, Khodosovtsev 2023). To be looked for in Italy.

Growth form: Crustose

Substrata: bark

Photobiont: Trentepohlia

Reproductive strategy: mainly sexual

Pioneer species

pH of the substrata:

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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: Khodosovtsev A. 2023. The first records of the lichen-forming, lichenicolous and allied fungi from Ukraine. Folia Cryptog. Estonica, 60: 31-39.

A – section across ascomata (in water); B – bitunicate asci; C, E – ascospores, D – ascospores in the endoasci. Scale bars: A – 20 μm, B–E – 10 μm (in KOH).