Calicium abietinum

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Calicium abietinum
Calicium abietinum 60390395.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Caliciales
Family: Caliciaceae
Genus: Calicium
Species:
C. abietinum
Binomial name
Calicium abietinum
Pers. (1797)

Calicium abietinum, commonly known as fir pin or black stubble, [1] is a crustose lichen that is found growing on trees throughout much of the world.

Contents

Morphology

The lichen has a lichenized life habit. Its thallus is immersed. [2]

The apothecia are not pruinose, 0.6-0.9 mm tall, and 6-11 times as high as the width of the stalk. The stalk is dark brown in longitudinal section, consisting of densely intertwined, sclerotized hyphae. The outermost part of the stalk is +hyaline, with pale hyphae and a thin sheet of gelatinous material at the surface, often with a brownish or olivaceous tinge, or shiny black, and 0.08-0.13 mm wide. [2] [3]

The capitulum is 0.21-0.28 mm in diameter and lens- or slightly bell-shaped. The exciple has an upper part that is often slightly translucent and pale, formed as a continuation of the stalk tissue, with isodiametric to slightly elongated and anti-clinally arranged, heavily sclerotized cells. The hypothecium is flat or slightly convex. [2] [3]

The asci are 44 x 4-5 μm, cylindrical, and have uniseriate spores. The ascospores are semi-mature without ornamentation, but mature spores are ellipsoid, 11-15 x 5-7 μm, with irregular ornamentation of small pustules (minutely warted) giving rise to a dotted appearance under a light microscope, sometimes with a few irregular cracks. [2]

Chemistry

Spot tests show the thallus is K-, C-, KC-, P-, and the apothecia are I-. [2]

Ecology and distribution

Calicium abietinum grows on wood, especially conifers and oaks, as well as on decaying stumps and logs, in the fringe areas of forests in moderate to rather strong light. [2]

Its known distribution includes Europe, North America, Central America, South America, [1] and Australasia. [4] In the Sonoran region, it has been recorded from Arizona and the Channel Islands of California. [2]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Acolium</i> Genus of lichens

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<i>Calicium glaucellum</i> Species of lichen

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<i>Allocalicium</i> Single-species lichen genus

Allocalicium is a single-species fungal genus in the family Caliciaceae. It is monotypic, containing the single pin lichen species Allocalicium adaequatum. This lichen occurs in North America, South America, Europe, and the Russian Far East, where it grows on branches and twigs of deciduous trees and shrubs, typically those of alder and poplar. The species was originally described in 1869 as a member of Calicium, but molecular phylogenetics analysis demonstrated it was not a member of that genus and so Allocalicium was created to contain it.

Calicium episcalare is a rare species of pin lichen that is known from only a single locality in Sweden. It is in the family Caliciaceae. It one of the few Calicium species that is parasitic on another lichen. The type was found growing on the north-facing wall of an old wooden barn in Dalsland. The barn, which dates to the 17th century, was made from old pine wood and had likely never been painted. The specific epithet episcalare refers to the name of the host, Hypocenomyce scalaris, a common and widespread lichen. Calicium episcalare was described as a new species in 2016 by Swedish lichenologists Leif Tibell and Tommy Knutsson.

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<i>Flavoplaca oasis</i> Species of lichen

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<i>Chaenothecopsis kilimanjaroensis</i> Species of lichen

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Baeomyces heteromorphus is a species of terricolous (ground-dwelling) lichen in the family Baeomycetaceae. It has an Australasian distribution. Characteristics of the lichen include its greenish-grey thallus, the pink to brownish discs of its apothecia, translucent spores lacking internal partitions (septa), and the presence of the secondary metabolites norstictic acid and connorstictic acid.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Calicium abietinum Species Fact Sheet" (PDF). Bureau of Land Management. 31 December 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Consortium of Lichen Herbaria - Calicium abietinum". lichenportal.org. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  3. 1 2 Gasparyan, Arsen; Sipman, Harrie J. M.; Lücking, Robert (24 July 2017). "Ramalina europaea and R. labiosorediata, two new species of the R. pollinaria group (Ascomycota: Ramalinaceae), and new typifications for Lichen pollinarius and L. squarrosus". The Lichenologist. 49 (4): 301–319. doi:10.1017/S0024282917000226. ISSN   0024-2829.
  4. "Calicium abietinum". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.