building a Global Consortium of Bryophytes and Lichens as keystones of cryptobiotic communities
Cladonia dactylota
Cladonia dactylotaTuck.
Family: Cladoniaceae
[Cladonia dactylota var. dactylota Tuck., moreCladonia dactylota var. sorediata Tuck., Cladonia dactylota var. symphycarpia Tuck., Cladonia sorediosocapitata B. de Lesd.]
TYPE. CUBA. Santiago de Cuba: Nimanina, 1857, C. Wright, Lich. Ins. Cubae 30 p.p. (FH-Tuck, lectotype designated by Ahti (1993); BM, CUP, G, H-NYL 38544, M, MIN, NL, TNS, UPS, isolectotypes)
Description. Lichenized fungus.
Thallus dimorphic. Primary thallus squamulose, persistent; squamules medium to large (2-20 x 1-5 mm), +/- erect, thick; surface gray-green to olive green above; white, densely cottony sorediate beneath. Photobiont Asterochloris alga. Podetia common, greenish gray, sometimes with dark brown necrotic parts, often elongated, 0.8–2.5 cm tall, unbranched to slightly branched; axils closed; tips commonly with narrow and irregular cups, sometimes with small marginal proliferations, rarely without cups and tips acute; podetial surface corticate and densely sorediate; soredia farinose, developing into soralia generally forming below cups, less so along stalk. Ascomata biatorine apothecia, infrequent, brown, aggregated, on podetial tips lacking cups; hymenial jelly brown; ascospores hyaline, oblong, 8-11 x 3.5-4 μm. Pycnidia scarce, on cup margins or on primary squamules, globose to ovoid, 180-280 μm, sessile; pycnidial jelly hyaline; conidia hyaline, slightly curved, 7-10 x 0.5-1.0 μm.
Substrate and Habitat. On soil, primarily subtropical and warm temperate.
Distribution. Neotropical (Galapagos, South and Central America, Mexico, Caribbean) north into southeastern North America, Azores; in North Carolina represented by one historical specimen collected on Whiteside Mountian (R.C. Harris 13762, NY 1707939).
Literature
Ahti, T. (1993) Names in current use in the Cladoniaceae (lichen-forming Ascomycetes) in the ranks of genus to variety. Pp. 58-106 in Greuter, W (ed.): NCU-2. Names in Current Use in the Families Trichocomaceae, Cladoniaceae, Pinaceae, and Lemnaceae. Regnum Vegetabile, Koeltz Scientific Books, Königstein, Germany.
Ahti, T. (2000) Cladoniaceae. Flora Neotropica78: 1-362.
Pino-Bodas, R. & S. Stenroos. (2021) Global Biodiversity Patterns of the Photobionts Associated with the Genus Cladonia (Lecanorales, Ascomycota). Microbial Ecology82: 173–187.
Tuckerman, E. (1859) Supplement to an Enumeration of North American Lichenes. American Journal of Science and Arts. 28: 200-206 (original description).
Yánez-Ayabaca, A., T. Ahti & F. Bungartz (2013) The family Cladoniaceae (Lecanorales) in the Galapagos Islands. Phytotaxa129(1): 1-33.