Waynea

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Waynea
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Lecanorales
Family: Ramalinaceae
Genus: Waynea
Moberg (1990)
Type species
Waynea californica
Moberg (1990)
Species

W. adscendens
W. algarvensis
W. californica
W. cretica
W. giraltiae
W. hirsuta

Contents

Waynea is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Ramalinaceae. The genus was established in 1990 by the Swedish lichenologist Roland Moberg and named after the Wayne family who helped organize his collecting trip to California, where he collected the type species. The tiny lichens in Waynea form patches made up of scale-like lobes less than half a millimetre across, with powdery cushions that help them spread without sexual reproduction. The genus contains six species found in Europe and North America, growing on tree bark in small patches that can coalesce into mats just a few millimetres wide.

Taxonomy

Waynea was circumscribed in 1990 by the Swedish lichenologist Roland Moberg, who erected the genus to accommodate the new Californian species Waynea californica . Moberg placed his squamulose, sorediate lichen in the then-recognised family Bacidiaceae on account of its Bacidia -type asci, three-septate ascospores and biatorine , stalked apothecia (fruiting bodies), but he noted that it differed sharply from related genera in lacking secondary metabolites and a prothallus. He named the genus in honour of the Wayne family who had helped organise his collecting trip to Big Sur. [1]

Subsequent morphological and molecular work showed that Bacidiaceae is not distinct from Ramalinaceae; [2] current syntheses therefore place Waynea within that family. [3] [4] The genus remains recognised by its minute, often ascending squamules, stalked soralia or apothecia, and Bacidia-type asci with colourless, up-to-five-septate spores.

Description

Waynea forms diminutive, olive- to brown-green patches made up of tiny, scale-like lobes called squamules . Each squamule is convex, often lifts slightly from the bark, and measures less than 0.5 mm across, but neighbouring thalli can coalesce into mats only a few millimetres wide. Pale swellings appear on the upper surface; these burst open to create short-stalked, cup-shaped soralia—powdery cushions that release soredia, the microscopic packets of algal and fungal cells used for vegetative spread. Occasional short-stemmed, bluish-grey apothecia (sexual fruit bodies) are also produced; their rim is pale and unpigmented, making them easy to overlook against the soralia—especially because both structures are barely half a millimetre across. [1]

In section, the upper cortex is 20–30 μm thick and built of rounded, tightly packed cells, while the lower surface lacks any protective layer. A loose white medulla envelops Myrmecia -type green algal cells (spherical, 5–10 μm in diameter). The apothecial tissue contains slender, unbranched paraphyses with slightly swollen tips and cylindrical–clavate asci that each bear eight colourless, three-septate ascospores measuring 13–19 × 3–4 μm; the ascus apex stains blue in iodine, an amyloid reaction. No secondary lichen substances were detected in thin-layer chromatography of the type species, and the genus is further distinguished by the absence of a prothallus outlining the thallus margin. [1]

Species

As of June 2025, Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accept six species of Waynea: [3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Moberg, R. (1990). "Waynea, a new lichen genus in the Bacidiaceae From California". The Lichenologist. 22 (3): 249–252. doi:10.1017/S0024282990000275.
  2. ↑ Jaklitsch, Walter; Baral, Hans-Otto; Lücking, Robert; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2016). Frey, Wolfgang (ed.). Syllabus of Plant Families: Adolf Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. Vol. 1/2 (13 ed.). Berlin Stuttgart: Gebr. Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung, Borntraeger Science Publishers. p. 127. ISBN   978-3-443-01089-8. OCLC   429208213.
  3. 1 2 "Waynea". Catalogue of Life . Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
  4. ↑ Hyde, K.D.; Noorabadi, M.T.; Thiyagaraja, V.; He, M.Q.; Johnston, P.R.; Wijesinghe, S.N.; et al. (2024). "The 2024 Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa". Mycosphere. 15 (1): 5146–6239 [5254]. doi:10.5943/mycosphere/15/1/25.
  5. ↑ Bricaud, Olivier; Roux, Claude (1993). "Waynea adscendens Rico (Lichenes, Lecanorales, Bacidiaceae) en France". Cryptogamie. Bryologie, lichenologie (in French). 14 (2): 189–200.
  6. ↑ van den Boom, P.P.G.; Giralt, M. (2012). "Checklist of lichens and lichenicolous fungi of Algarve (Portugal), a survey". Sydowia. 64: 149–208.
  7. ↑ Llop, Esteve (2006). "Waynea cretica, a new species from the Mediterranean Region". The Lichenologist. 38 (6): 519–527. doi:10.1017/s0024282906005974.
  8. ↑ van den Boom, Pieter P.G. (2010). "Waynea giraltiae, a new lichen species from the Iberian Peninsula". The Lichenologist. 42 (1): 29–33. doi:10.1017/S0024282909990326.
  9. ↑ Tretiach, M. (1998). "Waynea hirsuta, a new epiphytic lichen species from Central Siberia". Nordic Journal of Botany. 18 (6): 721–726. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.1998.tb01554.x.
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