Bouvetiella

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Bouvetiella
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: incertae sedis
Family: incertae sedis
Genus: Bouvetiella
Øvstedal (1986)
Species:
B. pallida
Binomial name
Bouvetiella pallida
Øvstedal (1986)

Bouvetiella is a monotypic genus of lichenized fungus in the class Lecanoromycetes. It contains only the species Bouvetiella pallida.

Contents

Taxonomy

Bouvetiella pallida was first described by Dag Olav Øvstedal, a Norwegian lichenologist, in 1986. At that time, no molecular sequencing had been done on genetic material from the species. [1] As of May 2023, that was still the case, so the genus Bouvetiella has not been assigned to a family or order, though it is known to fall into the class Lecanoromycetes. [2] Bouvetiella pallida is distinctly different from any other known lichen. Because of this, Øvstedal established the genus Bouvetiella to contain it. [3] Bouvetiella pallida is the only species in the genus. [2]

Description

Bouvetiella pallida is a brownish-black crustose lichen which grows up to 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter. Its thallus, the lichen's vegetative body, is rubbery ( gelatinose ) with small, granular scales known as squamules . Its tiny, pale apothecia, the lichen's fruiting bodies, measure a mere 0.2 mm (0.0079 in) in diameter and can range in colour from light pink to whitish. These can be flat, or slightly convex. [3] The asci each contain eight lemon-shaped ascospores. Thin-walled, transparent and colourless, these ascospores measure 14–16 x 5–6 μm and contain numerous oil droplets. [4]

Habitat and range

Bouvetiella pallida was initially known only from Bouvet Island – a volcanic, subantarctic island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. There, it occurs 15–25 m (49–82 ft) above sea level, typically growing on low-growing communities of mosses. Those it most often overgrows belong to the genera Bryum and Tortula . It has also been found on soil (silt or scoria) near a fumerole. [5] On Bouvet Island, it has been found only in the area known as Nyrøysa – a flat terrace created by a rock slide on the island's northwestern coast in the 1950s. [3] [6] However, in 1998, it was also discovered on Livingston Island in the South Shetlands, on the lower slopes of Mount Reina Sofía. There, it was growing on soil over rock. [7]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baeomycetales</span> Order of fungi

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<i>Psilolechia</i> Genus of fungi

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<i>Pseudephebe</i> Genus of fungi

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<i>Absconditella</i> Genus of fungi

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<i>Rhizocarpon</i> Genus of lichens in the family Rhizocarpaceae

Rhizocarpon is a genus of crustose, saxicolous, lecideoid lichens in the family Rhizocarpaceae. The genus is common in arctic-alpine environments, but also occurs throughout temperate, subtropical, and even tropical regions. They are commonly known as map lichens because of the prothallus forming border-like bands between colonies in some species, like the common map lichen.

<i>Varicellaria</i> Genus of lichen

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Bellemerea elegans is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling) and crustose lichen in the family Lecideaceae. Found in Antarctica, it was formally described as a new species in 2009 by Norwegian lichenologist Dag Øvstedal. The type specimen was collected from the Admiralty Bay area of King George Island. Here, at an altitude of 105 m (344 ft), it was found growing on boulders that were overgrown with the beard lichen Usnea aurantiacoatra. Bellemerea elegans is only known from the type specimen. It has a crustose, grey, areolate thallus measuring 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) wide. Its apothecia are more or less immersed in the thallus (aspicilioid), measuring up to 1.1 in diameter, with a dull brown disc. Ascospores number eight per ascus, and measure 12–14 by 5–7 μm. The lichen contains porphyrilic acid, a lichen product.

Lecanora austrae-frigidae is a rare species of lignicolous (wood-dwelling) and crustose lichen in the family Lecanoraceae. Found in Antarctica, it was formally described as a new species in 2009 by Norwegian lichenologist Dag Øvstedal. The type specimen was collected from Deception Island. Here it was found growing on the imported timber of a decrepit whaling station. The lichen has a pale yellow-green, crustose thallus up to 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) wide and up to 0.3 mm thick. The apothecia start out immersed in the thallus, but later become sessile; they are up to 0.7 mm wide with a flat, orange-brown disc. No mature ascospores were detected in the type specimen. Several lichen products are found in Lecanora austrae-frigidae: arthothelin is a major metabolite, while minor compounds include atranorin, lichexanthone, and several chlorinated derivatives of both lichexanthone and norlichexanthone.

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Shackletonia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae, they are lichenicolous, and muscicolous species and known from Antarctica and southern Patagonia.

Austroplaca hookeri is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae. It was originally described by Carroll William Dodge in 1965, as Gasparrinia hookeri. The type specimen was originally collected by British botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker on Cockburn Island; the species is named in his honour. The taxon was transferred to the large genus Caloplaca in 2004, and again to the genus Austroplaca in 2013 as part of a restructuring of the family Teloschistaceae.

References

Sources

  • Barr, Susan (1987). Norway's Polar Territories. Oslo: Aschehoug. ISBN   978-82-03-15689-2.
  • "Bouvetiella". Catalogue of Life . Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  • Lücking, Robert; Hodkinson, Brendan P. & Leavitt, Steven D. (Winter 2016). "The 2016 classification of lichenized fungi in the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota–Approaching one thousand genera". The Bryologist. 119 (4): 361–416. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-119.4.361. JSTOR   44250015. S2CID   90258634.
  • Øvstedal, Dag Olav (1986). "Crustose lichens of Bouvetøya" (PDF). Botany of Bouvetøya, South Atlantic Ocean I: Cryptogramic taxonomy and phytogeography (PDF). Oslo: Norsk Polarinstitutt. ISBN   978-82-90307-40-5.
  • Øvstedal, D. O. & Smith, R. I. Lewis (2001). Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia: A Guide to Their Identification and Ecology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-66241-3.
  • Søchting, Ulrik; Øvstedal, Dag O. & Sancho, Leopoldo G. (2004). "The lichens of Hurd Peninsula, Livingston Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica". In Döbbeler, Peter & Rambold, Gerhard (eds.). Contributions to Lichenology. Festschrift in Honour of Hannes Hertel. Bibliotheca Lichenologica. Vol. 88. pp. 607–658. ISBN   978-3-443-58067-4.