Flavoplaca maritima is a species of crustose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae.[2] It is found in costal areas of Northern, Western, and Southern Europe. It mostly occurs on rocks, but has also been recorded growing on wood.
| Flavoplaca maritima | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Teloschistales |
| Family: | Teloschistaceae |
| Genus: | Flavoplaca |
| Species: | F. maritima
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| Binomial name | |
| Flavoplaca maritima (B.de Lesd.) Arup, Frödén & Søchting (2013)
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Taxonomy edit
It was first formally described in 1909 by the French lichenologist Maurice Bouly de Lesdain (in a publication of Alexander Zahlbruckner), who described it as a variety of Caloplaca citrina.[3] Later, he considered the taxon worthy of more distinct status and published it as the species Caloplaca maritima.[4]
Ulf Arup and colleagues transferred the taxon to the genus Flavoplaca in 2013, following a molecular phylogenetics-based restructuring of the family Teloschistaceae.[5]
Description edit
Flavoplaca maritima is distinguished by its golden-yellow to pale orange, crustose thallus. It often forms extensive patches, characterised by a cracked-areolate surface, which means the thallus is broken into flat, uneven, knobbly sections called areoles. These areoles are bordered by an orange prothallus, giving the lichen a distinctly fragmented appearance.[6]
This species typically features numerous apothecia, which are the fruiting bodies of the lichen. These apothecia are sessile, meaning they sit directly on the thallus without a stalk, and are flat in shape. Their colour ranges from yellow to yellow-orange and they are edged with a thin thalline margin that matches the thallus in colour.[6]
The ascospores of Flavoplaca maritima measure 11–15 μm in length and 5–8 μm in width, with a septum (a partition in the spore) measuring between 3.5 and 5.5 μm. In terms of chemical spot test reactions, all parts of this lichen are K+ (purple).[6]
Habitat and distribution, and ecology edit
Flavoplaca maritima grows on sun-exposed siliceous rocks, sometimes on calcareous walls, and rarely on wood. It occurs in the western British Isles, Western Europe, Mediterranean France, and the Channel Islands, usually in coastal areas.[6]
Verrucula maritimaria is a lichenicolous (lichen-dwelling) fungus that is known to parasitise Flavoplaca maritima.[7] In the Netherlands, the moss Hydropunctarietea maurae is a common associate with Flavoplaca maritima.[8]
References edit
- ^ "Synonymy. Current Name: Flavoplaca maritima (B. de Lesd.) Arup, Frödén & Søchting, Nordic Jl Bot. 31(1): 46 (2013)". Species Fungorum. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
- ^ "Flavoplaca maritima (B. de Lesd.) Arup, Frödén & Søchting". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
- ^ Zahlbruckner, A. (1909). "Schedae ad "Kryptogamas exsiccatas" editae a Museo Palatino Vindobonensi". Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie B. 23: 213–236 [230].
- ^ de Lesdain, Maurice Bouly (1953). "Ecologie du Caloplaca maritima dans la région de Dunkerque, ses stations, ses compagnons, leur vie, leur mort" [Ecology of Caloplaca maritima in the Dunkirk region, its habitats, its companions, their life, their death]. Revue bryologique et lichénologique. 22: 313.
- ^ Arup, Ulf; Søchting, Ulrik; Frödén, Patrik (2013). "A new taxonomy of the family Teloschistaceae". Nordic Journal of Botany. 31 (1): 16–83. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.2013.00062.x.
- ^ a b c d Fletcher, A.; Laundon, J.R. (2009). "Caloplaca Th. Fr. (1860)". In Smith, C.W.; Aptroot, A.; Coppins, B.J.; Fletcher, F.; Gilbert, O.L.; James, P.W.; Wolselely, P.A. (eds.). The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland (2nd ed.). London: The Natural History Museum. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-9540418-8-5.
- ^ 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 [366]. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-121.3.340.
- ^ Schrijvers-Gonlag, Marcel; van Dort, Klaas (2023). "A synopsis of bryophyte-lichen syntaxa in the Netherlands". Lindbergia. 2023 (1). doi:10.25227/linbg.24635. hdl:11250/3094147.