Trapelia

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Trapelia
Trapelia coarctata - Flickr - pellaea.jpg
Trapelia coarctata
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Baeomycetales
Family: Trapeliaceae
Genus: Trapelia
M.Choisy (1929)
Type species
Trapelia coarctata
(Turner) M.Choisy (1932)
Synonyms [1]

Trapelia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Trapeliaceae. [2] [3] These lichens form tight, crusty patches on rocks and bark that may appear smooth at first but often crack into small plates over time. The genus was established by the French lichenologist Maurice Choisy in 1929 and contains more than 20 species found worldwide. Most species reproduce through small, disc -shaped fruiting bodies that range from pale pink-brown to nearly black, and many can be identified by specific chemical compounds they produce.

Contents

Taxonomy

Trapelia was circumscribed by the French lichenologist Maurice Choisy in 1929. He assigned Trapelia coarctata as the type species. [4]

Description

Trapelia forms a low-profile crust that adheres tightly to its substrate. Colonies may begin as a thin, continuous film with a smooth outer edge; over time this film either cracks into a mosaic of tiny plates ( areoles ) or arises directly as discrete areoles that later press together to form an almost seamless crust. The uppermost layer of fungal tissue ( cortex ) is only weakly differentiated and comprises rounded cells, while a delicate epinecral film of dead cell remnants often leaves a fine frost-like sheen ( pruina ). A narrow, sometimes inconspicuous prothallus —an initial growth of colourless hyphae—may fringe the colony. The internal algal partner is a minute, spherical green alga ( chlorococcoid photobiont). [5]

Reproductive structures appear as rounded apothecia that sit flush with, or slightly raised above, the thallus surface. When young they are partly embedded; mature apothecia may display a thin, brown, often ragged margin formed from disrupted thallus tissue, giving the impression of a "pseudothalline" rim. The disc ranges from pale pink-brown to almost black and is frequently uneven or roughened. Internally, the epithecium is brown and may dissolve to an orange-brown solution in potassium hydroxide solution (a common diagnostic test), whereas the underlying hypothecium is pale to light brown. Slender paraphyses thread the hymenium; these filaments branch and fuse profusely near their tips, but their ends remain narrow rather than swollen. [5]

Each ascus is slightly club-shaped, stains weakly blue in iodine and carries eight single-celled, colourless ascospores that are ellipsoidal and 9–25  micrometres (μm) long. In many species tiny, immersed pycnidia generate asexual conidia—straight or slightly curved rods—that help the lichen spread. Chemical analyses detect one or more of three common secondary metabolites—gyrophoric acid, lecanoric acid and 5-O-methylhiascic acid—which can assist with species-level identification. [5]

Species

As of June 2025 Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accept 18 species of Trapeila. [3]

References

  1. ↑ "Synonymy: Trapelia M. Choisy, Bull. Soc. bot. Fr. 76: 523 (1929)". Species Fungorum . Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  2. ↑ Wijayawardene, Nalin; Hyde, Kevin; Al-Ani, Laith Khalil Tawfeeq; Somayeh, Dolatabadi; Stadler, Marc; Haelewaters, Danny; et al. (2020). "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa". Mycosphere. 11: 1060–1456. doi: 10.5943/mycosphere/11/1/8 .
  3. 1 2 "Trapelia". Catalogue of Life . Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  4. ↑ Choisy, M. (1929). "Genres nouveaux pour la lichénologie dans le groupe des Lecanoracées" [New genera for lichenology in the group Lecanoraceae]. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France (in French). 76 (3): 521–527. doi:10.1080/00378941.1929.10837179.
  5. 1 2 3 Orange, A.; Cannon, P.; Aptroot, A.; Coppins, B.; Sanderson, N.; Simkin, J. (2021). Baeomycetales: Trapeliaceae, including the genera Coppinsia, Placopsis, Placynthiella, Rimularia, Trapelia and Trapeliopsis (PDF). Revisions of British and Irish Lichens. Vol. 18. p. 3. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  6. ↑ Ertz, Damien; Aptroot, André; Van de Vijver, Bart; Sliwa, Lucyna; Moermans, Coraline; Øvstedal, Dag (2014). "Lichens from the Utsteinen Nunatak (Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica), with the description of one new species and the establishment of permanent plots". Phytotaxa. 191 (1): 99–114. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.191.1.6.
  7. ↑ Elix, J.A.; McCarthy, P.M. (2020). "Three new species of Trapelia (lichenized Ascomycota, Trapeliaceae) from eastern Australia". Australasian Lichenology. 86: 102–108.
  8. 1 2 Kantvilas, Gintaras; Leavitt, Steven D.; Elix, John A.; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2014). "Additions to the genus Trapelia (Trapeliaceae: lichenised Ascomycetes)". Australian Systematic Botany. 27 (6): 395–402. doi:10.1071/SB14037.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Orange, Alan (2018). "A new species-level taxonomy for Trapelia (Trapeliaceae, Ostropomycetidae) with special reference to Great Britain and the Falkland Islands". The Lichenologist. 50 (1): 3–42. doi:10.1017/S0024282917000639.
  10. ↑ Elix, J.A.; McCarthy, P.M. (2019). "Trapelia concentrica (lichenized Ascomycota, Trapeliaceae), a new species from south-eastern Australia, with a key to the genus in Australia". Australasian Lichenology. 85: 46–50.
  11. ↑ Kondratyuk, S.Y.; Lőkös, L.; Halda, J.P.; Haji Moniri, M.; Farkas, E.; Park, J. S.; Lee, B.G.; Oh, S.-O.; Hur, J.-S. (2016). "New and noteworthy lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi 4" (PDF). Acta Botanica Hungarica. 58 (1–2): 75–136 [101]. doi:10.1556/034.58.2016.1-2.4.
  12. 1 2 Coppins, B.J.; James, P.W. (1984). "New or interesting British lichens V". The Lichenologist. 16 (3): 241–264. doi:10.1017/S0024282984000451.
  13. 1 2 Kantvilas, G.; Elix, J.A. (2007). "Additions to the lichen family Agyriaceae Corda from Tasmania". Bibliotheca Lichenologica. 95: 317–333.
  14. ↑ Laundon, J.R. (2005). "The publication and typification of Sir James Edward Smith's lichens in English Botany". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 147 (4): 483–499. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2004.00378.x.
  15. 1 2 Fryday, A.M. (2004). "New species and records of lichenized fungi from Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands, New Zealand". Bibliotheca Lichenologica. 88: 127–146.
  16. ↑ Hertel, H. (1970). "Trapeliaceae – eine neue Flechtenfamilie" [Trapeliaceae – a new lichen family]. Vorträge aus dem Gesamtgebiet der Botanik (in German). 4: 171–185.
  17. ↑ Aptroot, André; Schumm, Felix (2012). "A new terricolous Trapelia and a new Trapeliopsis (Trapeliaceae, Baeomycetales) from Macaronesia". The Lichenologist. 44 (4): 449–456. doi:10.1017/S0024282912000084.
  18. ↑ Brodo, I.M.; Lendemer, J.C. (2015). "A revision of the saxicolous, esorediate species of Ainoa and Trapelia (Baeomycetaceae and Trapeliaceae, lichenized Ascomycota) in North America, with the description of two new species". The Bryologist. 118 (4): 385–399. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-119.1.385.
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