Leprocaulaceae is a family of mostly lichen-forming fungi. It is the single family in the monotypic order Leprocaulales.[1] Leprocaulaceae contains three genera and about 33 species.

Leprocaulaceae
Leprocaulon knudsenii, San Gabriel Mountains, southern California
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Leprocaulales
Lendemer & B.P.Hodk. (2013)
Family: Leprocaulaceae
Lendemer & B.P.Hodk. (2013)
Type genus
Leprocaulon
Nyl. (1879)
Genera

Halecania
Leprocaulon
Speerschneidera

Taxonomy

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Both the family and the order were circumscribed by American lichenologists James Lendemer and Brendan Hodkinson in 2013. They studied sterile, crustose lichens previously classified in the genus Lepraria using molecular phylogenetic techniques. They redefined the genus Leprocaulon to include several crustose lichens that were previously placed in Lepraria, and defined the new family and order to contain this genetically distinct grouping of species, including the genus Halecania.[2] Speerschneidera was included based on the results of a study published a year later.[3] The authors suggested that Leprocaulales is sister to the Caliciales,[2] although in a later phylogenetic study using a temporal approach, it appeared to be more closely related to the Teloschistales.[3]

Description

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Collectively, Leprocaulaceae is a morphologically diverse family. Most taxa in the family are sterile lichens that reproduce asexually, and produce the secondary compounds argopsin, pannarin, and usnic acid. Those taxa that are fertile have lecanorine apothecia and hyaline ascospores.[2] Genus Halecania contains one lichenicolous fungus, and five lichenicolous lichens.[4]

Genera

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References

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  1. ^ Wijayawardene, Nalin; Hyde, Kevin; Al-Ani, Laith Khalil Tawfeeq; Somayeh, Dolatabadi; Stadler, Marc; Haelewaters, Danny; et al. (2020). "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa". Mycosphere. 11: 1060–1456. doi:10.5943/mycosphere/11/1/8. hdl:10481/61998.
  2. ^ a b c Lendemer, James C.; Hodkinson, Brendan P. (2013). "A radical shift in the taxonomy of Lepraria s.l.: Molecular and morphological studies shed new light on the evolution of asexuality and lichen growth form diversification". Mycologia. 105 (4): 994–1018. doi:10.3852/12-338.
  3. ^ a b Kraichak, Ekaphan; Huang, Jen-Pan; Nelsen, Matthew; Leavitt, Steven D.; Lumbsch, H. Thorsten (2018). "A revised classification of orders and families in the two major subclasses of Lecanoromycetes (Ascomycota) based on a temporal approach". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. doi:10.1093/botlinnean/boy060.
  4. ^ Diederich, Paul; Lawrey, James D.; Ertz, Damien (2018). "The 2018 classification and checklist of lichenicolous fungi, with 2000 non-lichenized, obligately lichenicolous taxa". The Bryologist. 121 (3): 340–425. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-121.3.340.
  5. ^ Mayrhofer, Michaela (1987). "Studien über die saxicolen Arten der Flechtengattung Lecania in Europa I. Halecania gen. nov". Herzogia (in German). 7 (3–4): 381–406. doi:10.1127/herzogia/7/1987/381.
  6. ^ Lamy, E. (1878). "Catalogue raisonné des lichens du Mont-Dore et de la Haute-Vienne". Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France (in French). 25: 352.
  7. ^ Trevisan de St-Léon, V.B.A. (1861). "Über Atestia, eine neue Gattung der Ramalinaceen aus Mittelamerika". Flora (Regensburg) (in German). 44: 452.