Cryptothecia rubrocincta
| Cryptothecia rubrocincta | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Growing on guayaibi (Patagonula amaricana) tree in Chaco Province, northern Argentina | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Arthoniomycetes |
| Order: | Arthoniales |
| Family: | Arthoniaceae |
| Genus: | Cryptothecia |
| Species: | C. rubrocincta |
| Binomial name | |
|
Cryptothecia rubrocincta (Ehrenb.) G.Thor (1991) |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Byssus sanguinea Sw. |
|
Byssus sanguinea Sw.
Chiodecton rubrocinctum (Ehrenb.) Nyl.
Chiodecton sanguineum (Sw.) Vain.
Corticium rubrocinctum (Ehrenb.) Bres.
Herpothallon sanguineum (Sw.) Tobler
Hypochnus rubrocinctus Ehrenb.
Hypochnus sanguineus (Sw.) Kuntze
Thelephora sanguinea Sw.
Cryptothecia rubrocincta is a species of lichen in the Arthoniaceae family of fungi. The species is distributed in subtropical and tropical locations throughout the southeastern United States, as well as Central and South America, and has been collected infrequently in a few locales in Africa. The body of the lichen forms continuous, circular crust-like patches on dead wood, readily recognizable by the prominent red pigment. The older, central region is covered with red, spherical to cylindrical granules. Moving outwards from the center, zones of color may be distinguished, the first gray-green, the second white, and finally a bright red cottony rim. The red and green colors of this unmistakable woodland lichen give the appearance of a Christmas wreath, suggestive of its common North American name, the Christmas wreath lichen. The red pigment, called chiodectonic acid is one of several chemicals the lichen produces to help tolerate inhospitable growing conditions.
The classification of the genus Cryptothecia has been unclear, and historically, C. rubrocincta has been placed in several different genera. Like all lichens, C. rubrocincta is an association of a fungus (the mycobiont) with a photosynthetic organism (the photobiont), in this case, an algae. Initially, it was unknown whether the mycobiont component of C. rubrocincta was an ascomycete or a basidiomycete. Although the vast majority of lichen mycobionts are from the Ascomycota, in 1937 German lichenogist Friedrich Tobler believed the mycobiont to be a basidiomycete, because he interpreted some unusual microscopic structures to be clamp connections, structures associated only with the basidiomycete fungi. In another publication later that year, he specified the mycobiont to be a hymenomycete, and described the monotypic genus Herpothallion to supersede the old name Chiodecton sanguineum. Although Vernon Ahmadjian corroborated the presence of clamp connections in the species when he studied the species' cytology in 1967, other researchers did not find clamp connections in specimens collected from different countries. Further doubt was cast on the possibility of a basidiomycete mycobiont with the discovery of the depside confluentic acid in 1966, concentric bodies in 1975, and woronin bodies in 1983, as all of these characteristics are restricted to Ascomycetes.
...
Wikipedia