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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
     
     
Strigula elixii P.M.McCarthy
     
  Biblioth. Lichenol. 78: 279 (2001). T: Christmas Is., 2 km SSW of airport, off North–South Baseline Road, disused forest track, 10°28.23'S, 105°40.83'E, alt. 240–250 m, on limestone outcrop in moderately dense primary forest, 31.vii.2000, P.M.McCarthy 1438; holo: CANB.  
     
  Thallus crustose, endolithic, diffuse to ± determinate, continuous, greenish white, pale grey or pale grey-green. Algae Trentepohlia; cells 6–14 × 6–12 µm; interstitial hyphae c. 2 µm wide. Prothallus not apparent. Perithecia numerous, usually solitary, mostly semi-immersed, occasionally almost superficial, convex, broadly conical to hemispherical, rarely slightly constricted at the base, black, (0.27–) 0.41 (–0.52) mm diam.; surface smooth to minutely and irregularly uneven, at first appearing pruinose due to rock fragments and crystals embedded in the involucrellum; decayed perithecia often leaving a shallow depression in the substratum which may be delimited by the black ring of the involucrellar remains. Perithecial apex rounded or somewhat pointed; ostiole usually in a minute, shallow depression or a short, blunt, apical papilla. Involucrellum dimidiate or extending to excipulum-base level, contiguous with the excipulum or diverging near the base, 50–90 µm thick. Excipulum dark greenish brown to black, 20–25 µm thick. Centrum globose to depressed-ovate, 0.2–0.29 mm wide. Subhymenium 10–20 µm thick. Paraphyses simple to sparingly branched, to 1 µm thick. Periphyses absent. Asci elongate-cylindrical, 80–115 × 7–9 µm; apex rounded, non-amyloid, with a 1–2 µm wide and tall, hemispherical to tuberculate ocular chamber. Ascospores usually 8 per ascus (occasionally up to 4 aborting), hyaline, narrowly ellipsoid, fusiform or narrowly clavate, 1-septate, uniseriate and obliquely overlapping to subbiseriate, (11–) 16 (–20) × (3.5–) 4.5 (–6) µm ; contents frequently large-guttulate, the ascospores then sometimes appearing 3-septate. Conidiomata of two types: (1) semi-immersed to almost completely immersed, 0.12–0.17 mm diam., black and convex to subconical above, dark brown to black below; macroconidia 1-septate, cylindrical, 8–12 × 2–3 µm with apiculate to filiform, apical, gelatinous appendages to 2 (–5) µm long; (2) similar in size and structure to macroconidiomata, but with simple, elongate-ellipsoid to bacilliform microconidia 2–4 × 0.7–1 µm.
     
  Grows on limestone outcrops and large boulders in primary rainforest in Christmas Is.; endemic.  
     
   
     
     
  McCarthy (2001i)  

Checklist Index
Introduction | A–D | E–O | P–R | S–Z | Oceanic Islands | References
 
 
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