Northwest Lichenologists

lirellae

  • 19 Dec 2019 2:44 PM
    Message # 8331131

    lirellae

    Last spring we visited some “old growth” forest on the north side of Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, in which there seemed to be an interesting variety of lirellae. Collection of specimens was not permitted. Just thought they were attractive.


    https://northwest-lichenologists.wildapricot.org/page-1816539/109154189#photo

    etc.

  • 22 Dec 2019 10:38 AM
    Reply # 8356736 on 8331131

    This from Troy McMullin:

    My best guess is the pruinose taxon within the Graphis scripta complex. We know there are multiple species within that complex and two studies have been completed trying to clarify them but without success. I think it needs a focussed long term study, good for a phd. Lots of nice photos in there. The rest of the lirellae are almost certainly in the Graphis scripta complex. There is a small chance that the ones with pruina are Alyxoria varia, but who knows. 

  • 26 Dec 2019 12:59 PM
    Reply # 8397095 on 8331131

    Thanks Daphne! Motivated by Troy's remarks to look just a bit more.


    In Microlichens V2 Bruce puts it this way:

       Graphis scripts is a widely used name that encompasses a large range of morphological variation. Unfortunately those morphologies do not coincide well with the genetic structure of the species (Kraichak et al. 2015).
       The “script” seems to vary from place to place and substrate to substrate. Sometimes the lirellae form star-like clusters [e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderflechten/27340525279/], in other cases they are long and sinuous (similar to g. pergracilis), and in other cases there is some distinct parallelism among the lirellae. No one has broken the code in the script.)


    From the abstract of Kraichak et al. 2015:

    Our analyses suggest between six and seven putative species within the G. scripta complex. However, these did not correspond to the taxa that were recently distinguished based on apothecium morphology and could not be circumscribed with the morphological characters that were traditionally used in the classification of the complex. Any formal taxonomic treatment will require additional sampling and evaluation of additional traits that potentially can characterize these clades.

    Last modified: 26 Dec 2019 1:03 PM | Richard Droker

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