Heppia lutosa
| Heppia lutosa | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lichinomycetes |
| Order: | Lichinales |
| Family: | Porocyphaceae |
| Genus: | Heppia |
| Species: | H. lutosa
|
| Binomial name | |
| Heppia lutosa | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
|
List
| |
Heppia lutosa is a species of jelly lichen in the family Porocyphaceae. The species forms small scaly lobes up to 10 mm across that are attached to the substrate by a central point, with a dark olive upper surface and a pale to reddish-brown underside. It occurs in Africa, Europe, and North America.
Taxonomy
The species was first scientifically described in 1814 by Erik Acharius, who named it Collema lutosum based on material growing on muddy soil in Germany; in his brief Latin diagnosis he characterised it as a crustose, cracked, areolate-lobate and wrinkled, yellowish-green lichen with large immersed apothecia whose discs are flat to slightly convex and become pale reddish when moist.[3] William Nylander reclassified the species in Heppia in 1869.[4]
Description
Heppia lutosa has a squamulose (scaly) thallus made up of small, leaf-like lobes that are rounded to irregularly lobed and measure up to about 10 mm across. The squamules are attached to the substrate by a central umbilicus and range from flat or slightly wavy to distinctly convex, with margins that typically curve downwards. The upper surface is smooth and dark olive in colour, underlain by a thin surface layer. The underside is also smooth, and varies from pale flesh-brown to deep reddish or almost blackish brown; its cortex is formed of paraplectenchymatous tissue that may appear palisade-like and is about 10–50 (sometimes up to 75) micrometres thick. The medulla is differentiated into an upper zone containing the photobiont, which occupies about one-quarter to three-quarters of the medullary depth, and a lower zone of loose, algae-free fungal hyphae.[5]
Asexual reproduction occurs through soredia, which are produced in usually well-defined soralia situated either along the margins or across the surfaces of the squamules. Sexual fruiting bodies (apothecia) are commonly numerous on each squamule; they are immersed in the thallus so that only the disc is visible at the surface, ranging from punctiform (point-like) to about 0.7 mm in diameter. The ascospores are ellipsoid and relatively small, measuring about 6–8 by 3–5 μm.[5]
Habitat and distribution
Heppia lutosa has been documented from Africa, Europe, and North America.[5]
References
- ^ Bailey, F.M. (1891). "Contributions to the Queensland Flora". Botany Bulletin, Department of Agriculture, Queensland. 7: 32.
- ^ "GSD Species Synonymy. Current Name: Heppia lutosa (Ach.) Nyl., Syn. meth. lich. (Parisiis) 2: 45 (1869)". Species Fungorum. Retrieved 3 December 2025.
- ^ Acharius, Erik (1814). Synopsis Methodica Lichenum (in Latin). Lundin: Litteris et Sumtibus Svanborg. p. 309.
- ^ Nylander, W. (1869). Synopsis Methodica Lichenum Omnium hucusque Cognitorum, Praemissa Introductione Lingua Gallica (in Latin). Vol. 2. pp. 1–64 [45].
- ^ a b c Swinscow, T.D.V. (1982). "The genera Peltula and Heppia in Tenerife". The Lichenologist. 14 (1): 76–83. doi:10.1017/S0024282982000115.