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Usnea Dill. ex Adans. (1763)

Data Set Maintenance: Data set standard item. Data set author(s): Rambold G. Data set not revised; to be published after submission.

Nomenclature: Current taxonomic status: accepted or basionymous. Taxonomic rank: genus. Number of known taxa within this rank: 300 (A. Aptroot 99-09-27). Usnea. Parmeliaceae Zenker (1827); Lecanorineae; Lecanorales.

Type Information: Type: Usnea florida (L.) Weber ex F.H. Wigg.

Taxonomic Literature: Taxonomic notes: incl. Neuropogon Nees & Flot. (1835). Clauzade G. & Roux C., Bull. Soc. Bot. Centre-Ouest N.S. - Numero
Special 7: 1-893 [771-780] (1985); Clerc P., Nordic J. Bot. 7: 479-
495 (1987); Galloway D.J., Flora of New Zealand Lichens: i-lxxiii, 1-
662 [316-319 - sub Neuropogon, 596-604], Wellington (1985); Halonen
P., Graphis Scripta 8: 51-56 (1997); James P.W., Clerc P. &
Purvis O.W. in: Purvis O.W. et al. (eds), The Lichen Flora of Great
Britain and Ireland, London (1992); Lamb I.M., Brit. Antarc. Surv.
Sci. Rep. 38: 1-34, tab. I-XVI, pl. I-IX (1964); Clerc P.,
Lichenologist 29: 209-215 (1997); Swinscow T.D.V. & Krog H.,
Lichenologist 11: 207-252 (1979).

Biogeography: Checklist records: Austria, Bolivia, Germany, Great Britain, Guianas, Italy, New Zealand, Sonoran Desert, Sweden and Norway, Thailand, United States and Canada (continental), and Republic of South Africa.

Ecology: Biotroph; lichenized; lignicolous or corticolous; substrate non-calciferous.

Lichen Photobionts: Primary photobiont present; chlorococcal. Primary photobiont taxonomy: Asterochloris and Trebouxia (A. Beck 22-05-97); Trebouxiaceae; Trebouxiales, Trebouxiophyceae, Eukariota. Secondary photobiont absent.

Thallus: Crustose or fruticose, not subdivided parts, subfruticose, granular, or rimose. Upper Surface: Grey, green, yellow, brown, red, olive, brownish yellow, or orange; special structures absent or present:; not pseudocyphellate; eciliate; without hairs; not isidate or isidiate; not sorediate or sorediate; not cephalodiate; not lobulate; without granules granules, without thalloconidia thalloconidia. Lower Surface: Attached by holdfasts; special structures absent.

Reproduction Strategy: Only known as sterile, asexually reproducing form or with sexual (and possible asexual) stages. Ascocarps: Apothecioid, orbicular, forming all across the thallus surface, directly at the tip of the thallus parts, soon sessile. Margin: Distinct to prominent; external filaments absent. Exciple: White. Periphyses: Absent. Epithecium: Apical cells hyaline. Interascal Hyphae: Present, scarcely branched, not or scarcely anastomosed. Hypothecium: White.

Asci: Tholus thickened, amyloid, with non-amyloid wide axial body and divergent amyloid flanks towards apex; dehiscence lecanoralean.

Ascospores: c. 8 per ascus, ellipsoid, 8.5-11 µm long, 5.5-7 µm wide, obtuse; septa absent; wall thin, not thickened at the septum, hyaline, in Lugol's Solution negative, wall not ornamented.

Conidiomata: Absent resp. not observed or present; pycnidial; immersed, formed along the thallus periphery.

Conidia: Fusiform, bifusiform, or bacilliform.

Secondary Metabolites: Present, of the following substance class(es): orcinol depsidones, ß-orcinol depsides, ß-orcinol depsidones, (higher) aliphatic acids, benzyl esters, and dibenzofurans [and usnic acids].

(report generated 04.Okt.2007)


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