Three new species of Herpothallon (Lichenized Ascomycota) from Southern China

Abstract

This paper describes three species of Herpothallon new to science from southern China: H. glaucescens, H. lilacinum and H. tomentosum. The three species all possess a non-pigmented thallus, hypothallus and prothallus. Herpothallon glaucescens has a white, whitish grey to greyish green thallus and swollen, subglobose to ± vermiform pseudisidia, rounded at the top. Herpothallon lilacinum has subglobose or irregularly cushion-shaped, fluffy-felty pseudisidia, white at the base, lilac to lilac grey at their tips. Herpothallon tomentosum has globular pseudisidia, felty with many projecting hyphae, sometimes containing a central pycnidium. Detailed descriptions for all three new species are provided with an updated key to the genus Herpothallon in China. Additionally, a phylogenetic tree based on Bayesian and ML analyses of mtSSU data shows the position of the new species in Herpothallon.

A New Species and a New Record of Byssoid Arthoniaceae (Lichenized Ascomycota) from Southern China

“…In addition, pycnidia are developed in some species inside or at the top of pseuodisidia, such as H. isidiatum Jagadeesh Ram & G. P. Sinha and H. tomentosum L.L. Liu & Lu L. Zhang [6,11]. However, in our research, we frequently encountered sterile crustose lichens that lack distinctive characteristics for accurate taxonomic classification.…”

“…The family Arthoniaceae (Arthoniales, Arthoniomycetes, Ascomycota) contains over 700 lichenized species in 20 genera [1], and it is a major component of the lichen flora of many forest types, especially in the tropical and subtropical regions [2,3]. Up to now, 58 species of 11 genera in Arthoniaceae have been reported from China, including five species of Cryptothecia and 17 species of Herpothallon [4][5][6][7].…”