The Teloschistales are an order of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. According to one 2008 estimate, the order contains 5 families, 66 genera, and 1954 species. The predominant photobiont partners for the Teloschistales are green algae from the genera Trebouxia and Asterochloris.
The Verrucariaceae are a family of mostly lichenised fungi in the order Verrucariales. The lichen-forming species, which comprise the vast majority of the family, have a wide variety of thallus forms, and include crustose (crust-like), foliose (bushy), and squamulose (scaly) representatives. Several characteristics of the spore-bearing structures, the ascomata, define the family, including their perithecioid form–more or less spherical or flask-shaped, with a single opening and otherwise completely enclosed by a wall. Squamulose members of the Verrucariaceae with simple ascospores, and without algae in the spore-bearing region are known as catapyrenioid lichens; there are more than 80 of these species. The family has several dozen lichenicolous (lichen-dwelling) examples, including a few genera that contain solely lichenicolous members. An unusually diverse variety of photobiont partners have been recorded, mostly green algae, but also brown algae and yellow-green algae.
Clavascidium is a genus of lichens in the family Verrucariaceae. The genus was circumscribed in 1996 by Austrian lichenologist Othmar Breuss. Because the type species of the genus, Clavascidium umbrinum, has been shown using molecular phylogenetics to belong to genus Placidium, Cécile Gueidan and colleagues proposed to unite Clavascidium with Placidium in a 2009 publication. Despite this, the genus has been retained in recent publications of fungal classification.
Heteroplacidium is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Verrucariaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Austrian lichenologist Othmar Breuss in 1996 with Heteroplacidium imbricatum assigned as the type species. It was proposed as a segregate of Catapyrenium. Other morphologically similar genera are Neocatapyrenium, Placidium, and Scleropyrenium, although molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that they are independent monophyletic lineages within the Verrucariaceae.
Staurothele is a genus of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichens in the family Verrucariaceae. It has about 40 species. When the fungus is part of a lichen, the genus of lichen is commonly called rock pimples.
Hydropunctaria is a genus of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichens in the family Verrucariaceae. The genus includes both aquatic and amphibious species, with members that colonise either marine or freshwater habitats. The type species, Hydropunctaria maura, was formerly classified in the large genus Verrucaria. It is a widely distributed species common to littoral zones. Including the type species, five Hydropunctaria lichens are considered marine species: H. adriatica, H. amphibia, H. aractina, H. orae, and H. oceanica.
Heteroplacidium zamenhofianum is a species of lichenicolous (lichen-eating) lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. As a juvenile, it is parasitic on some members of the lichen genus Staurothele, but later becomes independent and develops a brown, crustose thallus. Characteristic features of the lichen include its dark brown, somewhat squamulous thallus and relatively small ascospores. It is widely distributed in Europe and North America.
Willeya is a genus of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichens in the family Verrucariaceae. It has 12 species. Most species are found in southeast Asia, although individual representatives are known from Australia, Europe, and North America.
Willeya fusca is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. Found in Vietnam, it was formally described as a new species in 2014 by Cécile Gueidan. The species epithet fusca refers to its characteristic dark brown areolate thallus, a feature that distinguishes it from other Willeya species.
Willeya laevigata is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. Found in northwest Vietnam, it was formally described as a new species in 2014 by Cécile Gueidan. The type specimen was found growing on shaded calcareous rock outcrops in a rainforest in the Mai Châu district of Hòa Bình province. The species epithet laevigata refers to the smooth upper surface of the thallus.
Willeya protrudens is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. Found in northern Vietnam, it was formally described as a new species in 2014 by Cécile Gueidan. The type specimen was found growing on calcareous rock outcrops in the Na Hang Nature Reserve. The species epithet protrudens refers to the projecting perithecia, a morphological feature distinguishing it from other Willeya species.
Staurothele elenkinii is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling) lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. It was described as new to science by Ukrainian lichenologist Alfred Oxner in 1927, from the steppes of Ukraine. In 2013 it was recorded from the northeast Caucasus, in Russia. It is also widespread on dry rocks in the North American west, ranging from the Northwest Territories south to the southwestern United States. It grows on shales, sandstones, and calcareous rocks.
Sporodictyon is a genus of crustose lichens in the family Verrucariaceae. It has 10 species. Most species grow on rocks, although some have been recorded overgrowing soil and mosses.
Hydropunctaria rheitrophila is a species of freshwater, saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. It was formally described as a new species in 1922 by German lichenologist Georg Hermann Zschacke as a species of Verrucaria. Christine Keller, Cécile Gueidan, and Holger Thüs transferred it to the newly circumscribed genus Hydropunctaria in 2009. It is one of several aquatic lichens that are in this genus. The photobiont partner of Hydropunctaria rheitrophila is a yellow-green alga.
Wahlenbergiella mucosa is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. It is a marine species that grows in the littoral zone, and therefore remains immersed in seawater for extended periods. Its photobiont partner is the green alga Paulbroadya petersii.
Wahlenbergiella tavaresiae is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. Known from several locations in the San Francisco Bay area of the United States, it is a marine lichen that inhabits intertidal zones, and as such is immersed in seawater on a regular basis. Associated algal species include the red algae Hildenbrandia and Mastocarpus papillatus, and the brown algae Pelvetiopsis and Fucus. Petroderma maculiforme, a brown alga, is the photobiont partner in the lichen.
Claude Roux is a French lichenologist, mycologist and Esperantist. He has co-authored books about the identification of lichens written in Esperanto.
Cécile Gueidan is a mycologist and lichenologist who applies morphological and molecular biological methods to the origin and taxonomy of fungi that live in lichen symbioses and within rocks.
Astrothelium pseudoferrugineum is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae. Found in Indonesia, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected in 1937 by Pieter Groenhart on Jombang (Java); there, it was found in a disturbed rainforest growing on smooth tree bark. The lichen has a smooth and somewhat shiny to glossy, bright orange thallus with a cortex but without a prothallus. The orange crust is about 0.1 mm thick and covers areas of up to 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter. The use of thin-layer chromatography shows the lichen contains an orange anthraquinone, possibly parietin. The main characteristics of the lichen that distinguish it from others in Astrothelium are its immersed to erumpent, whitish pseudostromata. It is named for its similarity to Astrothelium ferrugineum, from which it differs in its glossier thallus and larger ascospores.
Staurothele pulvinata is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), squamulose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. The lichen was first formally described in 1861 by Theodor Magnus Fries, as a member of genus Endocarpon. The type specimen was collected from northern Norway. The taxon was later transferred to Dermatocarpon by Gustav Wilhelm Körber in 1863, and to Polyblastia by Antonio Jatta in 1900. Starri Heiðmarsson moved it to Staurothele in 2017, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis that showed it belonged to that genus. It is one of few squamulose species in a genus comprising mostly crustose lichens. Staurothele pulvinata has an arctic-alpine distribution; it has been recorded from Europe, Greenland, Iceland, and the United States.
