soot lichen (Lichens of Chiricahua NM)

soot lichen

Cyphelium tigillare

Summary ⁶

Cyphelium notarisii is a species of lichen in the family Caliciaceae, and the type species of the genus Cyphelium. Widespread in North America, it commonly grows on fenceposts.

Description ⁷

Thallus: verrucose, well developed, variable in thickness, sometimes almost immersed; surface: intensely yellowish green; cortex: 14-15 µm thick, with numerous minute yellowish green crystals; Apothecia: immersed in verrucae, epruinose, 0.5-0.8 mm in diam; mazaedium: 0.3-0.5 mm in diam., black, epruinose; exciple: uniformly thin, rim-like, thin throughout, 14-30(-40) µm thick laterally and not or only slightly thickened at the base, blackish brown, sclerotized, irregularly arranged and strongly intertwined hyphae with thickened walls; hypothecium: 55-85 µm high, medium brown, with strongly intertwined hyphae; asci: pyriform, 18-22 x 6-7 µm, rupturing at very early stages, with 2-3-seriate spores; ascospores: brown, 1-septate and constricted in the middle, broadly ellipsoid, 17-21 x 9-11 µm; surface: smooth, without cracks; Pycnidia: at first spherical to ellipsoid, 160-190 x 105-125 µm, later irregular and confluent with other pycnidia to leave incomplete walls deliminating aggregates of numerous loci; pycnidium aggregates: irregular, up to 0.4 mm wide, sometimes opening by a few longitudinal slits; wall: 9-12 µm thick, consisting of isodiametric or slightly elongated, moderately sclerotized, medium brown cells; in the uppermost part: cells spherical, 4-5 µm in diam. and heavily sclerotized, blackish brown; conidiophores: short, with few branches; basal cells: +isodiametric, 3-4 µm; conidiogenous cells: ellipsoid to short cylindrical, 2.5-4 x 1.5-2.5 µm, terminal and branched conidiophores also produced laterally; conidia: non-septate, hyaline, ellipsoid, 3-4 x 1.5 µm; Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-; Secondary metabolites: thallus with rhizocarpic acid, epanorin and two unidentified metabolites.; Substrate and ecology: on dry, weathered wood or rarely bark, especially of conifers (Pinus and Picea) or occasionally Betula, and post and rails in old forests; World distribution: widely distributed in the boreal and temperate zones of Eurasia and North America; Sonoran distribution: southern California, Arizona, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora.; Notes: Occasional specimens of Cyphelium tigillare with a pale thallus, lacking rhizocarpic acid, occurring at higher altitudes and latitudes, can be difficult to distinguish from