genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of mostly
crustose
Crustose is a habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the substrates at all points. ''Crustose'' is found on rocks and ...
areolate
Lichens are composite organisms made up of multiple species: a fungal partner, one or more photosynthetic partners, and sometimes a basidiomycete yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their ...
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014,
Most of the species of this genus grow on
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...
and acidic rocks and most of the taxa prefer
temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
and arctic habitats.
Some members of the genus ''Aspicilia'' are pioneer species on granite and other hard rock, after which members of other lichen species may grow on them, such as members of ''
Acarospora
''Acarospora'' is a genus of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the family Acarosporaceae. Most species in the genus are crustose lichens that grow on rocks in open and arid places all over the world. They may look like a cobblestone road or cracked ...
Members of this genus are weakly cracked to distinctly areolate, with a scattered to whole thallus, thalli. Some of the species of this genus are disc-shaped with plicate lobes at the circumference; these lobes may appear chalky white, grayish, greenish or brownish. Some possess
vegetative
Vegetative describes vegetation. Vegetative may also refer to:
*Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in ...
means of propagation such as
isidia
An isidium is a vegetative reproductive structure present in some lichens. Isidia are outgrowths of the thallus surface, and are corticated (i.e., containing the outermost layer of the thallus), usually with a columnar structure, and consisting o ...
(column-like structures of fungal and algal cells normally found on the top-side or outer cortex of the lichen) and soredia (structures that produce soralia, granule-like masses of intertwined fungal and algal cells occurring on top of the cortex and on the margins).
They have characteristic ascomata which are mostly immersed but occasionally emergent. They have 4 to 8 spored
asci ASCI or Asci may refer to:
* Advertising Standards Council of India
* Asci, the plural of ascus, in fungal anatomy
* Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative
* American Society for Clinical Investigation
* Argus Sour Crude Index
* Association of ...
that are cylindrical to club-shaped. Their
ascospores
An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or ...
are typically
ellipsoid
An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation.
An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the ...
to
globose
A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ce ...
in shape, colorless and thin-walled. They often contain β-orcinol depsidones ( secondary metabolites of lichens) such as
norstictic acid
Norstictic acid is a depsidone produced as a secondary metabolites in lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.
and
stictic acid
Stictic acid is an aromatic organic compound, a product of secondary metabolism in some species of lichens.
Stictic acid is the subject of preliminary biomedical research. Stictic acid has cytotoxic and apoptotic effects ''in vitro''. Computation ...
s; others have fatty acids or triterpenes. In genus ''Aspicilia'' dramatic changes in growth forms are very common, and some taxa may display extreme transitions within the same population or even changes within the same thallus.
Classification
Previously placed in the family
Hymeneliaceae
Hymeneliaceae is a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Baeomycetales. It contains three genera and about 40 species. The family was circumscribed by German lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber in 1855.
Lichens in the Hymeneliaceae are s ...
,
phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
analyses indicate that the genus is better placed in the family
Megasporaceae
Megasporaceae are a family of fungi belonging to the order Pertusariales. Taxa are lichenized with green algae, and grow on rocks, often in maritime climates close to fresh water. Phylogenetic analysis has shown that this family is related to the ...
Aspicilia abbasiana
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose lichen, crustose areolate lichen, areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the List of common na ...
Aspicilia aquatica
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose lichen, crustose areolate lichen, areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the List of common na ...
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Aspicilia arizonica
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia aurantiaca
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
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Aspicilia auricularis
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
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Aspicilia berntii
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia californica
''Aspicilia californica'' (shrubby sunken disk lichen) is a small white to white mottled gray or gray-green foliose lichen, with stringy, terete, branch-like lobes. It is endemic to central and southern California, that grows on organic debris, m ...
Aspicilia cinerea
''Aspicilia cinerea'' (cinder lichen) is a gray to almost white, 1.5 – 15 cm wide, crustose lichen, crustose areolate lichen with large apothecia that mostly grows on rock in the mountains.Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. ...
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Aspicilia confusa
''Aspicilia confusa'' is a pale gray (sometimes brownish) crustose areolate lichen that grows mostly on rock in southern and central California mountains, from .Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, Lic ...
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Aspicilia corallophora
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
Aspicilia cyanescens
''Aspicilia cyanescens'' (bluish sunken disk lichen) is a rough surfaced, bluish-tinged pale gray rimose to areolate crustose lichen, endemic to California.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, Aspicili ...
Aspicilia endochlora
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
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Aspicilia epiglypta
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
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Aspicilia euphratica
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
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Aspicilia expansa
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
Aspicilia fumosa
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia guadalupensis
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
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Aspicilia humida
''Aspicilia humida'' is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling) and crustose lichen in the family Megasporaceae. As a member of the ''Aspicilia cinerea'' species group, it is most closely related to that lichen as well as '' A. dudinensis' ...
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...
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Aspicilia nashii
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia ochromelaena
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia pacifica
''Aspicilia pacifica'' (pacific sunken disk lichen) is a white to grayish, brownish, or ocher crustose areolate lichen that commonly grows on siliceous rock or basalt along the seashore and in higher coastal mountains of California and Baja Calif ...
Aspicilia pseudoabbasiana
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
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Aspicilia pseudovulcanica
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
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Aspicilia punctiformis
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Ste ...
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Aspicilia reagens
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia serpentinicola
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia subgoettweigensis
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the common name.Field Guide to California Lichens, Step ...
Aspicilia verrucigera
''Aspicilia'' (sunken disk lichen) is a genus of mostly crustose lichen, crustose areolate lichen, areolate lichens that grow on rock. Most members have black apothecia discs that are slightly immersed in the areolas, hence the List of common na ...
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Gallery
Image:Aspicilia_caesiocinerea-2.jpg, ''
Aspicilia caesiocinerea
''Circinaria caesiocinerea'' is a species of lichen belonging to the family Megasporaceae. It was first described as ''Lecanora caesiocinerea'' in 1869 by William Nylander, but was transferred to the genus '' Circinaria'' in 2010 by Anders Nordi ...
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Image:Aspicilia_cinerea-1.jpg, ''
Aspicilia cinerea
''Aspicilia cinerea'' (cinder lichen) is a gray to almost white, 1.5 – 15 cm wide, crustose lichen, crustose areolate lichen with large apothecia that mostly grows on rock in the mountains.Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. ...
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Image:Aspicilia_caesiocinerea-7.jpg, Photograph of a cross section of an apothecium of ''A. caesiocinerea'' taken through a compound microscope, x 100. Note the dark olive epihymenium.
Image:Aspicilia cinerea-2.jpg, Photograph of a section of an apothecium of ''A. cinerea'' taken through a compound microscope (x400) showing algae in the amphithecium of the thalline margin. (Lecanorine-type apothecium)
Image:Aspicilia caesiocinerea-9.jpg, Photograph of an ascus from ''A. caesiocinerea'' taken through a compound microscope (x1000) showing 8 spores per ascus. (Spores measure approximately 15 x 11 micrometres.)