Strigula nemathora
Family
Strigulaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: OL, SO
Brief description
Characterised by the foliicolous habit; the pale greenish grey thallus, often with small, white papillae; pale perithecia with pale or colourless perithecial walls; 1-septate ascospores (12–)15–22 × 4–6 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Church Road Scenic Reserve near Kaitaia).
One of the most common of pantropical foliicolous species.
Known also from the Caribbean, Central and South America, West and East Africa, South Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Malaysia, Cocos Is, New Caledonia, and Australia.
Habitat
On leaves of Beilschmiedia tawa.
Detailed description
Thallus foliicolous, subcuticular, effigurate, rounded to irregular, sometimes ±stellate, 5–15(–25) mm diam., of ±linear to somewhat irregular lobes, confluent to distinct or widely separated and discrete; broad and not very long to very long and thin, ±pinnate to irregularly branched, 0.1–0.2(–0.25) mm wide, plane or subconvex, smooth to delicately wrinkled, grey or greenish grey to green, glossy lobe margins bordered with numerous small papillae (0.02–0.03 mm diam.); 20–40(–50) μm thick, prothallus absent. Photobiont Cephaleuos, cells rounded, oblong or irregular, 5–16 × 5–9 μm, rather irregularly distributed in thallus, not in one simple layer. Perithecia 0.4–0.7(–0.8) mm diam., 150–300 μm tall, concolorous with thallus to pale- or dark-brown, walls pale or colourless. Involucrellum absent. Exciple pale- to dark-brown, 10–20 μm thick, covered by a thalline layer 20–30 μm thick almost to ostiole. Centrum applanate, 200–450 × 100–125 μm. Paraphyses simple, 1.5–2 μm thick. Periphyses indistinct. Asci cylindrical, 70–100 × 7–10 μm, thin-walled. Ascospores uniseriate or biseriate, 1-septate (rarely 3-septate), ±fusiform, apices subacute, often constricted at septum, (12–)15–22 × 4–6 μm. Pycnidia scattered, of two kinds: (1) producing macroconidia; 0.1 mm diam., immersed, forming subconvex protuberances, ostiole visible as dark point; wall thin, dark-brown. Conidiophores simple. Macroconidia 1-septate, bacillar, 9–12 × 3 μm; (2) producing microconidia, similar to above type but smaller, 0.05–0.1 mm diam. Microconidia simple, fusiform, 3–4 × 1.5 μm.
Substrate
Foliicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (14 January 2024). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 1985: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens. Wellington: PD Hasselberg, Government Printer. 662 pp.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
https://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/lichenlist/VOLUME%2057/Strigula_nemathora_d.html