Bacidia friesiana (Hepp) Koerb ., Parerga lichenol. (Breslau) 2: 133 (1860) [1865]

Lee, Beeyoung Gun & Hur, Jae-Seoun, 2022, A new species and four new records of Bacidia (Lecanorales, Ramalinaceae) from South Korea, with a key to Korean species, MycoKeys 93, pp. 107-130 : 107

Bacidia friesiana (Hepp) Koerb., Parerga lichenol. (Breslau) 2: 133 (1860) [1865]

Fig. 4

Description.

Thallus corticolous, crustose, thin, little developed or indistinct, generally not continuous, minutely granular with contiguous granules when developed, pale grey with slightly brownish colour, margin indeterminate. Prothallus not detected.

Apothecia consistently flat or convex when mature, marginate, without pruina, 0.1-0.5 mm diam. (mean = 0.23, SD = 0.07, n = 107). Disc biatorine, without thalline exciple, pale pink to pale yellow when young and darker (particularly around margin) when mature. Proper exciple hyaline with or without pale brown pigment, the pigment slightly thicker close to hymenium or excipular rim, 40-50 μm wide laterally. Epihymenium bluish-green, ca. 5 μm high. Hymenium hyaline, 40-45 μm high. Hypothecium hyaline, 50-60 μm high; upper hypothecium paraplectenchymatous (globular to angular), lower hypothecium prosoplectenchymatous (periclinally or irregularly arranged). Crystals or oil droplets absent. Asci narrowly clavate, 8-spored, 39-41 × 10-12 μm (n = 3). Ascospores acicular to filiform, 3- or 7-septate, 28-38 × 1.5-2.5 μm (n = 14). Pycnidia not detected.

Chemistry.

Epihymenium K-, C-. Hymenium K- or a few undeveloped asci K+ purplish. No lichen substance was detected by TLC.

Notes.

Bacidia friesiana is similar to B. circumspecta (Norrl. & Nyl.) Malme and B. igniarii (Nyl.) Oxner (syn. Scutula igniarii (Nyl.) S. Ekman) in having epihymenium with green pigments, proper exciple without crystals and dark hypothecium amongst corticolous species. However, B. friesiana differs from the latter two by the excluded margin of apothecia and acicular ascospores. The latter species have a permanent margin of apothecia and bacilliform or clavate ascospores ( Ekman 1996).

Phylogenetic analysis resulted in B. friesiana of Korea (ON352609 and ON352610) being nested with the sequences of Russia (MH539765), supported by a bootstrap value of 100 and a posterior probability of 1.00 for the branch (Fig. 2 ). Bacidia friesiana was previously reported from Europe, North America and Russian Far East ( Smith et al. 2009; Gerasimova et al. 2018). This is a new record to Korea.

Specimens examined.

South Korea, Gangwon Province, Yanggu, Nam-myeon, Dumu-ri , nearby a forested wetland, 38°02.12'N, 128°05.14'E, 421 m alt., on bark of Salix pierotii , 28 April 2020, B.G. Lee 2020-000164, with Mikhtomia gordejevii , Candelaria concolor (Dicks.) Arnold, Phaeophyscia adiastola , Porina cf. melanops , Rinodina cf. subminuta (KBA-L-0000364) ; South Korea, Gyeonggi Province, Yangpyeong, Cheongun-myeon, Dowon-ri , a forested wetland, 37°32.55'N, 127°48.60'E, 443 m alt., on bark of Salix pierotii , 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000438, with Lecidella euphorea , Phaeophyscia adiastola , Rinodina orientalis (KBA-L-0001910; GenBank ON352609 for ITS); same locality, on bark of Aralia elata (Miq.) Seem., 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000440, with Lecidella euphorea , Phaeophyscia adiastola , Traponora varians (KBA-L-0001912); same locality, on bark of Aralia elata , 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000441, with Hyperphyscia adglutinata ( Flörke) H. Mayrhofer & Poelt, Rinodina orientalis (KBA-L-0001913; GenBank ON352610 for ITS); same locality, on bark of Aralia elata , 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000442, with Rinodina orientalis , Traponora varians (KBA-L-0001914); same locality, on bark of Aralia elata , 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000443, with Hyperphyscia adglutinata , Rinodina orientalis , Traponora varians (KBA-L-0001915); same locality, on bark of Aralia elata , 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000444, with Phaeophyscia adiastola , P. rubropulchra , Rinodina orientalis (KBA-L-0001916); same locality, on bark of Aralia elata , 31 May 2021, B.G. Lee & H.J. Lee 2021-000445 (KBA-L-0001917) .

Figures

Figure 2. Phylogenetic relationships amongst available species in the genus Bacidia, based on a Maximum Likelihood analysis of the dataset of ITS sequences. The tree was rooted with the sequences of the genus Biatora, based on Gerasimova et al. (2018). Maximum Likelihood bootstrap values ≥ 70 % and posterior probabilities ≥ 95 % are shown above internal branches. Branches with bootstrap values ≥ 90 % are shown as thick lines. New sequences produced in this study are presented in bold. All species names are followed by the GenBank accession numbers.

Figure 4. Four new records of B. ekmaniana (KBA-L- 0000412 for A-C), B. friesiana (KBA-L- 0001914 for D-F), B. heterochroa (KBA-L- 0000386 for G-I) and B. suffusa (KBA-L- 0000359 for J-L) in morphology A habitus and apothecia. Granular thallus with green-grey pigment and straw-coloured apothecia B-C apothecial section with colourless epihymenium, red-brown hypothecium, and pale excipulum D habitus and apothecia. Thallus pale grey with slightly brownish pigment and pale pink apothecia E, F apothecial section with greenish epihymenium G habitus and apothecia. Thallus pale yellowish-grey and black apothecia with red pigment H, I apothecial section and proper exciple with dark margin J habitus and apothecia. Thallus whitish pale grey and pruinose apothecia K, L apothecial section with radiating clusters of crystals, which produce pruina on surface. Scale bars: 500 μm (A, D, G, J); 100 μm (B, E, H, K); 50 μm (C, I, L); 20 μm (F).