Biatoropsis usnearum
Family
Tremellaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the lichenicolous habit (growing on other lichens); the formation of pale pinkish to reddish brown, dark-brown or black, convex galls, 0.2–2.5 mm diam., often on the branch tips of the host (Usnea); auriculoid basidiomata, 20–44 μm long, with elongate epibasidia almost parallel to the basidium; basidiospores with a distinct apiculum.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Warkworth) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Southland. Stewart Island. Auckland Islands. Chatham Islands.
Widely distributed in temperate and tropical biomes and ranging from s.l. to 3600 m and known from Europe, Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America, Australia and the Falkland Islands.
Habitat
Hosts: grows on species of Usnea.
Detailed description
Basidiomata extremely variable in form, size and colour, generally subspherical and convex with a constricted base, often with lobate margins, sometimes flattened or with a concave central part, rarely effuse and covering larger areas around the branches of the host, surface smooth, rarely tuberculate, cartilaginous, pale pinkish, reddish-brown, dark-brown or black, 0.2–2.5 mm diam. Context hyphae 2–3 m wide, mostly uniform, the walls not markedly thickened, clamp connections absent; haustorial branches frequent, mother cell subspherical or sometimes elongate, 2.5–4.5 μm diam., haustorial filaments 0.5–1 μm thick, 3–7 m long. Hymenium hyaline, sometimes reddish brown in upper part and then yellow in K, thickness variable, with numerous probasidia. Basidia when mature, clavate to subcylindrical, with 1–3 transverse septa, 20–44 × 3–6.5 μm; epibasidia 2–3 μm thick, and to 85 μm long. Basidiospores subglobose to ellipsoidal, with a distinct apiculum, 4.5–8 × 4–7.5 μm. Anamorph hyphomycetous, often present, forming long branching chains of hyaline, ellipsoidal, simple conidia 3–5 × 2–3.5 μm.
Substrate
Lichenicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (6 May 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.