Northwest Lichenologists

Cladonia mitis?

  • 24 May 2016 12:38 PM
    Message # 4037414

    Today I stumbled upon this in the biocrust, sort of blew my mind. It is K- and P-, so I keyed it to Cladonia mitis, which also should be the most likely for collections made in Montana. I wanted to verify though, being unfamiliar with the species. It was one patch of it and it is darker than other photos I've seen of it.

    Thanks!

  • 24 May 2016 3:50 PM
    Reply # 4037749 on 4037414

    Try Cetraria muricata http://lichenportal.org/portal/taxa/index.php?taxon=54357  You are correct Cladonia arbuscula subsp. mitis should be white.

  • 24 May 2016 7:54 PM
    Reply # 4037934 on 4037414

    Wow these soil dwelling macrolichens are wild! Thanks Larry, that looks better. 

  • 31 May 2016 12:40 PM
    Reply # 4049569 on 4037414

    Great, C. muricata is a good fit. I looked for while at C. aculeata as another possibility, but the thin branches and inconspicuous psudeocyphellae seem to indicate C. muricata.

    Thanks again!

  • 01 Jun 2016 8:26 AM
    Reply # 4051211 on 4037414
    Deleted user

    Hi Rebecca - we commonly get Cetraria aculeata in our grassland samples  - it's cryptic but there - your sample is a particularly lovely Cetraria, I wish ours were that big!  

     

    Originally we were trying to discriminate between muricata and aculeata but everything we thought might be muricata was very small - after seeing well-developed colonies of aculeata that included juvenile material, we hypothesized that our little muricatas were actually juvenile aculeata, with the angular foveoles and depressed pseudocyphellae under-developed.  To that end I thought you'd also be interested in the note re: muricata in the Montana Lichens monograph by McCune et al., pg. 45: "muricata in the strict sense is almost certainly not found in N Am (F. Fernandez-Mendoza, per. comm.)"  I particularly like the combination of "almost" and "certainly" :)  Sounds like we're in for some genetic work down the road.

     

    Cheers,

    Diane  

  • 03 Jun 2016 11:07 AM
    Reply # 4056426 on 4037414

    Hi Diane, thanks for the information. I found this paper below that addresses some of this but more work appears to be needed. Since C. aculeata seems more common in Montana, and especially at lower elevations (which this was), I will go with that too. Also, page 104 of Macrolichens of the PNW "Some of our material is intermediate between the two species." The split between them doesn't seem very definitive, not enough for me to say that "almost certainly" I know which one I am looking at! :)

    Thanks again!


    Printzen C, Domaschke S, Fernández-Mendoza F, Pérez-Ortega S (2013) Biogeography and ecology of Cetraria aculeata, a widely distributed lichen with a bipolar distribution. MycoKeys 6: 33-53.




  • 03 Jun 2016 2:37 PM
    Reply # 4056727 on 4037414
    Deleted user

    Thanks - I don't have that paper, I'll definitely track it down.

    Cheers,

    Diane 

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