Bathelium carolinianum

Bathelium carolinianum is a species of crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] It is found in the eastern United States.

Bathelium carolinianum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Dothideomycetes
Order: Trypetheliales
Family: Trypetheliaceae
Genus: Bathelium
Species:
B. carolinianum
Binomial name
Bathelium carolinianum
(Tuck.) R.C.Harris (1995)
Synonyms
  • Trypethelium carolinianum Tuck. (1858)
  • Gyrophoropsis caroliniana (Tuck.) Elenkin & Savicz (1910)

Taxonomy

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The lichen was first formally described as a new species in 1858 by American lichenologist Edward Tuckerman. His diagnosis of the new species was as follows (translated from Latin): "Trypethelium carolinianum, new species, with a crustaceous, smooth, and wax-like thallus turning from green to brownish, with warts that are depressed to somewhat hemispherical, confluent, of irregular shape, and somewhat anastomosing, turning deep brown to blackish, with a yellow stroma, perithecia that are ovoid, thin, and black, and ostioles that are papillate and black." The species epithet carolinianum refers to the type locality, in Santee Canal, South Carolina, where Henry William Ravenel found it growing on tree trunks in 1851.[2] Richard Harris transferred the species to the genus Bathelium in 1995.[3]

Description

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Bathelium carolinianum features a greenish-brown thallus. Its dark brown perithecia cluster in pseudostroma, which is rich in yellow pigment. This lichen commonly thrives on smooth-barked hardwoods, notably the American holly. It does not react with any of the standard chemical spot tests.[4]

Trypethelium virens is somewhat similar in appearance, but its pseudostromata are the same color as the thallus, and its pseudostroma does not have yellow pigment.[4]

Species interactions

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One of the main characteristics of the lichen Bacidia thiersiana, widespread throughout southeastern North America and described as new to science in 2020, is its frequent occurrence on and near the thalli of Bathelium carolinianum.[5] Etayoa trypethelii is a lichenicolous fungus that has been documented to infect Bathelium carolinianum; it does not visibly damage the thallus of its host.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Bathelium carolinianum (Tuck.) R.C. Harris". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  2. ^ Tuckerman, E. (1858). "Supplement to an Enumeration of North American Lichenes". American Journal of Science and Arts. 2. 25: 422–430 [429].
  3. ^ Harris, Richard C. (1995). More Florida Lichens, Including the 10-cent Tour of the Pyrenolichens (PDF). Bronx, New York: New York Botanical Garden. p. 110.
  4. ^ a b Tripp, Erin A.; Lendemer, James C. (2020). Field Guide to the Lichens of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-62190-514-1.
  5. ^ Lendemer, James C. (2020). "Bacidia thiersiana (Ramalinaceae), a new species with lobaric acid widespread in southeastern North America". The Bryologist. 123 (1): 39–47. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-123.1.039.
  6. ^ Ertz, Damien; Lawrey, James D.; Common, Ralph S.; Diederich, Paul (2013). "Molecular data resolve a new order of Arthoniomycetes sister to the primarily lichenized Arthoniales and composed of black yeasts, lichenicolous and rock-inhabiting species". Fungal Diversity. 66 (1): 113–137. doi:10.1007/s13225-013-0250-9.