Lecidea brandegeei Tuck. [as ‘brandegei’], Bull. Torrey Bot. Club10: 21 (1883). Lecanora pringlei subsp. brandegeei (Tuck.) B.D.Ryan, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region (Tempe) 2: 257 (2004).
Type. U.S.A. COLORADO: [Chaffee Co.], St. Elmo, 1880, T.S. Brandegee 25 (FH 00513679!, LECTOTYPE designated here by E.A. Davydov & C. Printzen, MYCOBANK Typification No. MBT 394862).
Note. In the protologue, Tuckerman (1883) cited a single locality: ‘‘Rocky Mountains, near St. Elmo, Colorado, T. S. Brandegee, in herb. Sprague’’. Two specimens corresponding to the description and locality information in the protologue from FH and US were examined. Both collections are morphologically uniform and accompanied presumably by the collection number – T.S. Brandegee (25), as well as ascospore drawings and measurements. The specimen from FH is marked with a stamp ‘‘Boston Society of Natural History’’ and an additional number 72 Tuck. [Tuckerman]’’ and 647 (Fig. 5), the significance of which remains obscure. The writing on the label (including the lettering associated with the illustrations of ascospores) is in the same hand. A comparison with handwriting samples shows that this hand is not Tuckerman’s; moreover, the annotation ‘‘Tuck. in litt.’’ suggests that these labels were not written by another herbarium worker under his direction. The handwriting does, however, match that of C.J. Sprague quite well. We are therefore reasonably sure that the specimen belonged to Sprague’s herbarium which was incorporated into FH. The specimen from FH is better developed, while two of four pieces of the specimen from US were apparently lost. Ryan et al. (2004) regarded the specimen from FH as the lectotype, and the specimen from US as the isolectotype, but their lectotypification is not valid, because the typification statement does not include the phrase ‘‘designated here’’ or an equivalent (ICN Art 7.11, Turland et al. 2018). Although Tuckerman indicated that he examined only one gathering in herb. Sprague, it is not clear whether he saw only one specimen or several duplicates. The ‘‘Catalogue of Sprague collection of lichens presented to the Boston Society of Natural History’’ (https://doi.org/ 10.5962/bhl.title.133543) lists only one specimen of L. brandegeei, which almost certainly refers to FH 00513679, even though the same catalogue also includes three specimens of L. pringlei. Tuckerman did not clearly indicate he saw a single specimen (compare ICN Art 9.1.example 1, Turland et al. 2018), and we do not have any evidence that Tuckerman had not seen the duplicate specimen, one of which is kept in US now, and therefore FH 00513679 might not be considered the holotype of Lecidea brandegeei.
Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2004. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 2.
Thallus: areolate-squamulose, 1.5 cm across, 5 mm thick; prothallus: occasionally present squamules: 1.5-2.5 mm across, +rounded to irregular; at most indistinctly stipitate; stipes: short (to 2 mm), non-cariose, corticate, lacking rhizinose strands, upper parts gradually broadened from a narrow base, not strongly swollen, often only weakly rugose or plicate, not distinctly foveolate surface: mostly yellowish brown, mostly dull on raised parts, darkened in depressions or crevices, esorediate cortex: with hyphae having indistinct lumina, not staining in cotton blue, with granules soluble in K, 75-100 µm thick medulla: solid to moderately loose, with hyphae 3-5 µm wide, lumina 5-10 x 1 µm; algal layer: continuous, c. 30 µm thick, with algae 8-10 µm in diam. Apothecia: usually numerous, distinct and conspicuous, soon adnate to sessile, usually distinctly darker than the thallus, mostly up to 1.5 mm in diam. disc: black, flat to slightly convex or undulate, usually dull, epruinose margin: concolorous with the thallus, usually distinct and somewhat raised, visible on undersides of apothecia, +raised and conspicuous, then thin and less conspicuous to disappearing, shiny, becoming and crenulate-lobulate amphithecium: present, with a discontinuous algal layer marginally and extending below the hypothecium, with clumps of yellowish brown granules in the medulla, similarly corticate to that of the thallus parathecium: hyaline internally, black externally, 0.1(-0.2) mm wide, with conglutinated hyphae +parallel to sides of the margin (perpendicular to the disc) 3-5 µm wide and with 0.5-1 µm wide lumina epihymenium: blue-black, K+ blue-green, N+ red-violet, without granules, 10-15 µm thick hymenium: I+ blue throughout, c. 40 µm tall; paraphyses: somewhat loosely coherent, simple to several-times furcate, constricted at septa, the tips capitate, 3-4(-5) µm, with light blue then brown or green-black caps; subhymenium: hyaline to yellowish brown tinged, up to 100 µm thick; hypothecium: hyaline, c. 40 µm thick, with hyphae 3-4 µm wide and lumina 1-2 µm wide asci: clavate, 35-40 x 12 µm, 8-spored ascospores: hyaline, simple, broadly ellipsoid, ellipsoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, (6-)8-10(-11) x (2.5-)3-5(-6) µm Pycnidia: ostiole: pale yellowish brown; wall: distinctly brown, conidiophores: +type III of Vobis (1980), bearing conidia apically, but basal cells short and unbranched conidia: hyaline, filiform, mostly 10-16 µm long Spot tests: cortex K+ yellow, C-, KC-, P-; medulla I-, K-, C-, KC+ red, P+ yellow Secondary metabolites: cortex with atranorin; medulla with psoromic acid, +alectorialic acid. Substrate and ecology: on siliceous rocks, often growing on surfaces perpendicular to the plane of foliation, occasionally on soil in crevices in rocks, frequently on massive outcrops on exposed, windy ridgetops, but sometimes on undersides of rocks or under overhangs on large boulders, alpine, to 3200-3750 m World distribution: North America (New Mexico to Montana) Sonoran distribution: Although the report of Lecidea brandegei from Arizona (Fink, 1935) has not yet been confirmed, ssp. brandegei does occur in New Mexico and Colorado, and is treated here because it is likely to occur in the San Francisco Peaks (where the closely related species L. cavicola occurs); reports of L. brandegei from southern California (Hasse 1895; McClatchie 1897; Hasse 1898a; Orcutt 1907) are based on misidentifications of species of Lecidea s. l. (probably the L. atrobrunnea group). Notes: As discussed by Ryan (1997), L. pringlei, together with L. cavicola and possibly some additional species, form a natural group, that eventually should be segregated from Lecanora. Although L. pringlei is somewhat similar to Rhizoplaca at least in terms of the stipitate thallus with very loose to hollow medulla, the synonymization of L. brandegei under R. melanophthalma (Esslinger, 1996, citing Weber) is quite incorrect; L. pringlei (including ssp. brandegei) differs from R. melanophthalma in the thallus color (due to the absence of usnic acid), consistently having epruinose apothecia, and thallus morphology (crustose vs. umbilicate). Subspecies brandegei [Type: Colorado: Rocky Mountains near St. Elmo, 1880, Brandegee, s.n, Lectotype (FH!), isolectotype (US!)] differs from the typical subspecies of L. pringlei (which occurs primarily from California to British Columbia), in having thallus units that are barely stipitate, rather than becoming dwarf fruticose. A very similar taxon is L. subcavicola; see notes under that name for comparisons. The report of Lecidea brandegei from Arizona may be based on that species, or else on a misidentification of species of Lecidea s. lato.