BC, Wells Gray, 20080227
WGWI west, crust lichens.
All these were on dead or fallen twigs of cottonwood (but not in snow), and one flake of bark. (Populus trichocarpa)
Phaeocalicium populneum [] [voucher]
| | GEN | | calicioid, on recently dead poplar twig |
| | APO | | stalked apothecia, slender dk brown stalk, translucent in squash, narrow long asci, K-, asci walls weakly I+ |
| | SPORE | | 8 per ascus, septate, even walls, nontextured, brown, ellip to football, all lined up in a row in ascus |
| | GEN | | crust lichen, on dead poplar stick bark |
| | THAL | | thick, white, verrucose, almost decorticate, no margin, K+ weak yellow |
| | APO | | disks, 1mm+, conspic ragged thalline marg, disk brown to pale greenish, nonpruinose, lt brown epilarge POL+ crystals among alg in amph, fine granular POL+ crystals in epi (among tips of para not just on surface), asci and hymen I+ dark, thollus non thickened when v young, thickening in from sides to uniformly quite thick with narrow faint dark-lined canal penetrating to edge near maturity, asci and para strongly conglutinated |
| | SPORE | | 8 per ascus, ellip to oblong, 1 cell (though often with oil bubbles), textured stuff inside but smooth surface, uniform thin walls, hyaline, I- to sl yellow-brownish, 14.4x7.7um (n=2), walls 0.9um thick |
Used Curtis's trial keys. Failed to perform the K test properly and got sidetracked to
L. populicola, but Curtis corrected me.
| | GEN | | crust lichen, on same dead poplar stick bark that was on |
| | THAL | | thick, white, cracked, not or barely corticate, black struggle zone, C-, UV-, K+ slow weak yell |
| | APO | | lecanorine disks, up to 0.5mm wide, scattered, black, convex, shiny textured, raised smooth thin rim, epi bluish washing out green in K, hymen clear, hypo and exciple lt orangish brown, para weakly branched and easily separated, para tips sl swollen, some POL+ white tiny granules in epi and under hypo, ascus tip thick even I+ dk blue with only at most a little dimple of lighter material inside, ascus walls rel thick |
| | SPORE | | 8 per ascus, ovoid to ellip, big oil drops inside, smooth, hyal, simple, v weakly I+ golden brownish |
Keys to either
L. laureri or
L. euphorea, with somewhat intermediate characters, but Curtis leans to the former due to its characteristic "fluffy" crust.
| | GEN | | crust lichen, on same dead poplar stick bark that was on |
| | THAL | | thick, white, cracked, thinning and vanishing at edge |
| | APO | | small disk, convex, waxy, white rim, pale to dark brown often mottled disks, to 0.2mm wide, epi brown, hymen and hypo clear, algae under apo in hypo but not in rim, para mostly unbr and rather narrow (to 1.5um at sl swollen tips), asci tips stain IKI+ blue but not a good enough section to observe presence or lack of axial mass, asci lumina stain IKI+ golden brownish |
| | SPORE | | 8 per ascus, mostly 1- or 3-septate with one or two with no septae, mostly bent, 15-20x4-5um, ellip, smooth, hyal, even thin walls, IKI+ weak golden |
Curtis's provisional key has some errors here. Using
Nash et al., it keys clearly to
L. fuscella or
L. naegelii. Comparing the descriptions, it is clearly the latter, with bent, often 1-septate spores and algae only reaching the bottom of the apothecium in spots.
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