Description
Species of Huriopsis are crustose lichens with a thin to moderately thick thallus (lichen body) that is golden yellow to grey, either continuous or broken into small areoles , with a matt , even surface. Asexual propagules may be present or absent; when present they are typically yellow-green. Powdery reproductive patches (soralia) commonly begin as narrow, lip-like breaks along the margin and round off into small circular spots, sometimes becoming pustular . The powder (soredia) can clump into larger granules that may form tiny bud-like fragments; true isidia (minute surface outgrowths) also occur in some species. A black prothallus is usual, forming a neat border that can become thick and ragged where the lichen spreads over other crusts or foliose lichens. [3]
Sexual structures, when produced, are small apothecia attached by a narrow base; the disc is plane and dark reddish-brown, with a rim of thallus tissue matching the thallus colour that remains flexuous and persistent. Orange-red crystals occur in the cortex of the apothecial rim and in the medulla and can obscure tissue detail. Ascospores show "type A" development and are of the Physcia - or Pachysporaria -type, with smooth walls. Chemically, the genus contains xanthone pigments (thiomelin in some taxa) and usually secalonic acid A or W, sometimes with traces of atranorin; routine spot tests are typically K−, C+ (yellow-orange), KC+ (yellow-orange), P−, and UV+ (dull orange). In combination with the yellow thallus or yellow-green soralia, these characters distinguish Huriopsis from superficially similar Rinodina. [3]
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