Australian Biological Resources Study
| Checklist of the Lichens of Australia and its Island Territories | ||
| Introduction | A–D | E–O | P–R | S–Z | Oceanic Islands | References | ||
| Fuscidea lightfootii (Sm.) Coppins & P.James | ||
| Lichenologist 10: 201 (1978); Lichen lightfootii Sm., Engl. Bot. 21: t. 1451 (1805). T: N Ireland, 1805, R.Scott; lecto: BM, fide B.J.Coppins & P.W.James, loc. cit. | ||
| Thallus pale olive-brown, whitish grey or olive-green, very variable, c. 100 µm thick, continuous, unevenly verruculose to ±papillate, or composed of minute contiguous or rather scattered granules, 0.05–0.20 mm wide, esorediate, sparsely sorediate or becoming an entirely pulverulent-sorediate deeply cracked crust, 200–400 µm thick; soredia fine to coarse, mostly rather scattered, arising from irregularly abraded papillae or granules, sometimes coalescing; prothallus thin, visible as a dark brown outline at the thallus margin; photobiont cells globose, 8–14 µm diam.; medulla I–. Apothecia scattered, sessile, constricted at the base, roundish or occasionally slightly lobed, 0.3–1.0 mm wide, 180–250 µm thick; disc plane to slightly convex when old, brown-black to black, epruinose, matt; margin concolorous with disc, matt, persistent but thin and inconspicuous, ±level with or slightly elevated above the disc. Excipulum in section not prominently differentiated, 30–70 µm thick, pale brownish with a dark brown outer edge c. 10 µm thick. Hypothecium hyaline to pale brown, 80–120 µm thick, weakly and partly I+ pale purple-blue. Hymenium hyaline, I+ blue, 60–80 µm thick, with a dark olive-brown epihymenial zone to c. 20 µm thick, intensifying olive in KOH. Paraphyses separating easily, mostly simple, 1.5–2.0 µm thick; apices swollen to 3–5 µm and pigmented dark brown. Asci (40–) 45–58 × 10–13 µm. Ascospores typically simple with 2 large globular vacuoles, or spuriously 1-septate, or rarely with a distinct central septum, colourless, dumb-bell-shaped or oblong-ellipsoidal with a faint central constriction, 7–10 × 3.5–5.0 (–6.0) µm. Pycnidia not observed. CHEMISTRY: Thallus K–, C–, KC–, Pd–, UV+ whitish; containing divaricatic acid. | ||
| Rather rare or overlooked in Tas. and recorded from widely different habitats: the upper branches and twigs of Atherosperma moschatum in cool-temperate rainforest; a young tree of Allocasuarina littoralis in rather degraded, lowland, dry-sclerophyll forest; and a eucalypt fence post in pasture. Also known from the British Isles, western Europe and Canada (British Columbia). | ||
| Kantvilas (2004e) | ||
| Checklist Index |
| Introduction | A–D | E–O | P–R | S–Z | Oceanic Islands | References |
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