Cetraria commixta (Nyl.) Th. Fr.

Szczepanska, Katarzyna, Guzow-Krzeminska, Beata & Urbaniak, Jacek, 2021, Infraspecific variation of some brown Parmeliae (in Poland) - a comparison of ITS rDNA and non-molecular characters, MycoKeys 85, pp. 127-160 : 127

Cetraria commixta (Nyl.) Th. Fr.

Platysma commixtum Lichenographia Scandinavica 1:109 (1871) ≡ Platysma commixtum Nyl., Synopsis methodica lichenum 1:310 (1860) ≡ Melanelia commixta (Nyl.) A. Thell, Nova Hedwigia 60:417 (1995) ≡ Cetrariella commixta (Nyl.) A. Thell & Kärnefelt, Mycological Progress 3:309 (2004).

Description.

C. commixta is a foliose species with elongated, smooth and flat lobes, 0.25-2.5 mm broad, which are thick on the margins and rounded at the ends ( Szczepańska and Kossowska 2017). Its upper surface is glossy, olive-brown to dark brown or almost black. The lower surface is pale brown, but darker in the centre, with single, dark rhizines. C. commixta possess rounded or slightly elongated pseudocyphellae, which are present only on the margins and edges of lobes and cylindrical, marginal pycnidia, producing hyaline, citriform conidia (3-4 × 1-1.5 µm). Apothecia are marginal, constricted at base, 0.2-7 mm diam., with hyaline, ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid ascospores (6-8 × 4-6 μm).

Chemistry.

α-collatolic acid (chemotype I) or no substances (chemotype III).

Distribution.

C. commixta is a circumpolar and arctic-alpine species ( Otte et al. 2005), growing mainly in mountain sites, in open places with high precipitation, on natural acid, siliceous rocks in North America and Europe. Available molecular data concern samples collected in North America (Canada, Greenland), as well as North (Finland, Norway, Sweden) and West (Spain) Europe.

Haplotypes differentiation.

We identified seven different haplotypes (Fig. 2 , Table 2 ) within C. commixta (n = 17) that differ from each other in one or two positions, except for a single Canadian sample that differs in at least eight positions. The most common haplotype was found in ten specimens occurring in Greenland and North and Central Europe, amongst them being three newly-sequenced specimens (samples 37 and 97 from Poland and sample 129 from Germany). Moreover, two Polish specimens (samples 36 and 124 from the Sudety Mountains) represent a unique haplotype that differs from the most common one in a single position. Five haplotypes identified in our dataset were represented by single specimens originating from Greenland (3 haplotypes), Canada or Spain.

Figures

Figure 2. Haplotype network, based on ITS rDNA sequences from specimens of Cetraria commixta. Newly-generated sequences are described with isolate numbers preceding the species names. Sequences downloaded from GenBank are described with their accession numbers. Mutational changes are presented as numbers in brackets near lines between haplotypes.