Pat McCarthy (Canberra)
Cladia xanthocarpa (Cladoniaceae)
Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia
on bark of Melaleuca arcana in a swamp. Coll. K.Thiele, 1985 (CANB)
Scale 5 mm
Thallus corticolous, foliose, ascending, attached by a well-delimited holdfast 2–5 mm wide, monophyllous, up to 25 mm wide, 0.5 mm thick laterally, to 1 mm thick at the fertile margins. Lobes solid, subrotund, cartilaginous when dry, flaccid when wet, discrete, ascending and often strongly recurved at the margins. Upper surface white, smooth at first, dull to slightly glossy, becoming ribbed, grooved and/or pitted with age, eperforate, lacking vegetative propagules, corticate in part, the cortex 10–15 µm thick, cartilaginous, of compacted, periclinal hyphae. Lower surface white to pale grey-white, ecorticate, of compacted medullary hyphae in a periclinal arrangement, occasionally indistinctly pitted, lacking anchoring hyphae, rhizines or haptera. Algae beneath the upper surface, forming a combined layer 40–75 µm thick; cells chlorococcoid, globose, 5–10 µm wide, some rather thick-walled, mixed with long-celled hyphae 3–4 µm wide. Medulla white, a loose network of branched and anastomosing, long-celled hyphae (4–)5–7(–8) µm wide. Apothecia common, marginal or submarginal, biatorine, stipitate, subglobose, 0.3–0.6 mm diam.; stipe whitish, 0.3–1 mm high; disc yellow to yellow-brown, strongly convex to subglobose, glossy, epruinose; proper margin not apparent. Thalline and proper excipulum lacking. Hypothecium 50–60 µm thick, colourless, not inspersed with granules or oil globules; hyphae variously oriented, anastomosing, thick-walled, 2–3 µm wide, the lumina c. 1 µm thick. Hymenium 50–75 µm thick, colourless, not inspersed, IKI+ blue. Epihymenium 5–8 µm thick, yellow to yellowbrown, decolorized in K, N–. Paraphyses agglutinated in the hymenial gel, simple, 1–1.5 µm wide; apical cells yellow or yellow-orange, scarcely swollen in water, (1.5–)2–2.5(–3) µm wide. Asci clavate, 21–25 × 10–13 µm, 8-spored but frequently with up to 4 spores aborted, approximating the Cladonia-type (Kantvilas & Elix 1999); apical dome well-developed, amyloid, with a darker-staining central tube with a very narrow, weakly amyloid central zone. Ascospores colourless, simple, narrowly ellipsoid, 5–9 × (2–)2.5–3 µm [n = 50]; spore wall smooth. Pycnidia not seen.
Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K+ yellow, C–, KC–; P+ orange; containing atranorin (minor), protocetraric acid (major), convirensic acid (minor), conprotocetraric acid (minor), methyl protocetrarate (minor) by HPLC.
Specimen too old for any meaningful, molecular analysis.
Cladia xanthocarpa (Cladoniaceae)
Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia
on bark of Melaleuca arcana in a swamp. Coll. K.Thiele, 1985 (CANB)
Scale 5 mm
Thallus corticolous, foliose, ascending, attached by a well-delimited holdfast 2–5 mm wide, monophyllous, up to 25 mm wide, 0.5 mm thick laterally, to 1 mm thick at the fertile margins. Lobes solid, subrotund, cartilaginous when dry, flaccid when wet, discrete, ascending and often strongly recurved at the margins. Upper surface white, smooth at first, dull to slightly glossy, becoming ribbed, grooved and/or pitted with age, eperforate, lacking vegetative propagules, corticate in part, the cortex 10–15 µm thick, cartilaginous, of compacted, periclinal hyphae. Lower surface white to pale grey-white, ecorticate, of compacted medullary hyphae in a periclinal arrangement, occasionally indistinctly pitted, lacking anchoring hyphae, rhizines or haptera. Algae beneath the upper surface, forming a combined layer 40–75 µm thick; cells chlorococcoid, globose, 5–10 µm wide, some rather thick-walled, mixed with long-celled hyphae 3–4 µm wide. Medulla white, a loose network of branched and anastomosing, long-celled hyphae (4–)5–7(–8) µm wide. Apothecia common, marginal or submarginal, biatorine, stipitate, subglobose, 0.3–0.6 mm diam.; stipe whitish, 0.3–1 mm high; disc yellow to yellow-brown, strongly convex to subglobose, glossy, epruinose; proper margin not apparent. Thalline and proper excipulum lacking. Hypothecium 50–60 µm thick, colourless, not inspersed with granules or oil globules; hyphae variously oriented, anastomosing, thick-walled, 2–3 µm wide, the lumina c. 1 µm thick. Hymenium 50–75 µm thick, colourless, not inspersed, IKI+ blue. Epihymenium 5–8 µm thick, yellow to yellowbrown, decolorized in K, N–. Paraphyses agglutinated in the hymenial gel, simple, 1–1.5 µm wide; apical cells yellow or yellow-orange, scarcely swollen in water, (1.5–)2–2.5(–3) µm wide. Asci clavate, 21–25 × 10–13 µm, 8-spored but frequently with up to 4 spores aborted, approximating the Cladonia-type (Kantvilas & Elix 1999); apical dome well-developed, amyloid, with a darker-staining central tube with a very narrow, weakly amyloid central zone. Ascospores colourless, simple, narrowly ellipsoid, 5–9 × (2–)2.5–3 µm [n = 50]; spore wall smooth. Pycnidia not seen.
Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K+ yellow, C–, KC–; P+ orange; containing atranorin (minor), protocetraric acid (major), convirensic acid (minor), conprotocetraric acid (minor), methyl protocetrarate (minor) by HPLC.
Specimen too old for any meaningful, molecular analysis.