Pyrenula breutelii (Müll. Arg.) Aptroot

Dou, Mingzhu, Li, Jiechen, Hu, Yongshun, Aptroot, André & Jia, Zefeng, 2024, Phylogenetic analysis shows that Pyrenula (Pyrenulaceae) diversity is larger than expected: three new species and one new record discovered in China, MycoKeys 110, pp. 159-183 : 159-183

Pyrenula breutelii (Müll. Arg.) Aptroot

Fig. 5

Basionym.

Anthracothecium breutelii Müll. Arg. , Flora 68: 339 (1885).

Holotype.

St Thomas, Breutel, ex hb. Hampe 1877 (G).

Description.

Thallus corticolous, crustose, olive-green in the field and khaki after drying, surface dull, corticate with abundant pseudocyphellae, UV-. Apothecia perithecioid, dispersed, aggregated occasionally when crowded, low conical, 0.3–0.5 mm diam., the sides often partly covered by the thallus, with crystals. Excipulum carbonized when mature and falls apart when over-mature. Ostioles apical, white. Hamathecium not inspersed, IKI + red. Ascospores 8 per ascus, subbiseriate, fusiform, with pointed or blunt ends, (23 –) 25–37 (– 41) × (10 –) 12–15 (– 18) μm, hyaline to brown, muriform, with c. 8 × 1–4 locules, lumina rounded, old spores containing globules of red oily substance.

Chemistry.

Thallus UV-. TLC with solvent C showed unidentified black spots at Rf four and five under 254 nm ultraviolet light on fresh plate; unidentified green spot at Rf four on charred plate under daylight; unidentified red spots at Rf three, four and five, unidentified red and black spots at Rf five on charred plate under 365 nm ultraviolet light (Suppl. material 3).

Additional specimens examined.

China • Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Australian Garden, Energy Road , 23°10'44"N, 113°21'20"E, alt. 26 m, on bark, 20 January 2019, Z. T. Yao ( LCUF GD 19285 ; GenBank PP 692375 for ITS and PP 692475 for LSU) . China • Guangdong Province, Guangzhou City, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Australian Garden, Energy Road , 23°10'44"N, 113°21'20"E, alt. 26 m, on bark, 20 January 2019, Z. T. Yao ( LCUF GD 19286 ; GenBank PP 692376 for ITS, PP 692476 for nuLSU and PP 659692 for mtSSU) .

Habitat and distribution.

Growing on tree bark of pantropical forests. Previously reported from the U.S.A ( Müller 1885). Newly reported for China.

Notes.

The morphology and anatomy characteristics of the Chinese specimens correspond to Pyrenula breutelii (Müll. Arg.) Aptroot described from St Thomas, Breutel, ex hb. Hampe. Pyrenula macularis is distinguished by larger ascomata (0.3–1.5 mm), larger ascospores (35–45 × 14–16) μm and less locules (1–3) ( Zahlbruckner 1930). In the protolog, TLC and KI result was not mentioned and molecular sequences were not provided. Here, we provide TLC, KI result and ITS and nuLSU sequences. Because the difference in ascospores between P. macularis and P. breutelii is not very significant, P. macularis was synonymized with P. breutelii ( Aptroot 2012; Aptroot et al. 2013). But the phylogenetic result and TLC result proves they are two different species. This is the first report of P. breutelii in China. Although P. breutelii clustered with P. thelomorpha with high support (1 / 100), they can be distinguished easily in anatomical characters. P. thelomorpha has no red or orange oil in over-mature ascospores and more locules (8 rows of c. 3–8 locules) ( Aptroot 2009).

Figures

Figure 5. Pyrenula breutelii (LCUF GD 19285) A thallus with ascomata and pseudocyphellae B hyaline immature ascospores and brown mature ascospores C, D over-mature ascospores with red oil E red arrows show gelatinous halo F ascus, with 8 ascospores. Scale bars: 1 mm (A); 20 µm (B); 10 µm (C, D); 20 µm (E, F).