''Gallowayella hasseana'', the poplar sunburst lichen, is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family

Teloschistaceae The Teloschistaceae are a large family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The family, estimated to contain over 1800 species, was extensively revised in 2013, including the creation o ...

. It occurs in North America.

Taxonomy

The lichen was first formally described as a new species in 1944 by Finnish lichenologist

Veli Räsänen Veli Johannes Paavo Bartholomeus Räsänen (24 August 1888 – 16 July 1953) was a Finnish lichenologist. Early life and education Veli Räsänen was born on 24 August 1888 in Simo, Finland. Räsänen's brother was the linguist Martti Räsä ...

as ''Xanthoria hasseana''. Over a half-century later, it was transferred to ''

Xanthomendoza ''Xanthomendoza'' is a genus of small, bright orange foliose lichen, foliose lichens with lecanorine apothecia. It is in the family Teloschistaceae. Members of the genus are List of common names of lichen genera, commonly called sunburst lichens ...

''.

Sergey Kondratyuk Sergey Yakovlevich Kondratyuk ( uk, Сергій Якович Кондратюк) (born 17 May 1959) is a Ukrainian botanist specialising in lichenology. His research deals with the taxonomy, floristics, ecology and geography of lichens and lic ...

and

Ingvar Kärnefelt Jan Eric Ingvar Kärnefelt (born 1944) is a Swedish lichenologist. Early life and education Kärnefelt was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1944. His initial goal in his higher-level studies at University of Cologne in 1966–1967 was to become ...

proposed a transfer to genus ''

Oxneria ''Oxneria'' is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Teloschistaceae. It has four species. The genus was circumscribed in 2003 by Sergey Kondratyuk and Ingvar Kärnefelt, with ''Oxneria alfredii'' assigned as the type species. The generic nam ...

'' in 2003. In 2012, the genus ''

Gallowayella ''Gallowayella'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has 15 species. The genus was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed in 2012 by Sergey Kondratyuk, Natalya Fedorenko, Soili Stenroos, Ingvar Kärnefelt, Joh ...

'' was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

, and this species transferred to it. The species is commonly known as the "poplar sunburst lichen".

Description

The lichen has a yellowish-orange thallus comprising small, overlapping (measuring 0.3–0.9 mm wide) arranged in a loosely attached rosette. The thallus undersurface is white, and attaches to the bark by relatively long rhizines. There are neither isidia nor soredia on the thallus surface. Apothecia, usually numerous in the center of the thallus, have dark orange and are 0.6–3 mm in diameter. Ascospores are

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 ...

in shape with a single

septum In biology, a septum (Latin for ''something that encloses''; plural septa) is a wall, dividing a cavity or structure into smaller ones. A cavity or structure divided in this way may be referred to as septate. Examples Human anatomy * Interatri ...

, and have typical dimensions of 15.5–18 by 7.5–9.5

μm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...

. ''Gallowayella hasseana'' mostly grows on bark (especially poplar bark), although it has occasionally been recorded on rock or on wood. It prefers open or partially shaded areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107691777 hasseana Lichen species Lichens described in 1944 Lichens of North America Taxa named by Veli Räsänen