''Imshaugia aleurites'', commonly known as the salted starburst lichen, is a species of

foliose lichen Foliose lichen is one of the morphological classes of lichens, which are complex organisms that arise from the symbiotic relationship between fungi and a photosynthetic partner, typically algae. This partnership allows lichen to live in dive ...

in the family

Parmeliaceae The Parmeliaceae is a large and diverse family of Lecanoromycetes. With over 2700 species in 71 genera, it is the largest family of lichen-forming fungi. The most speciose genera in the family are the well-known groups: '' Xanthoparmelia'' ( ...

. It has a wide distribution in Europe and North America, and has also been recorded in China.

Taxonomy

The lichen was first formally described by Swedish lichenologist

Erik Acharius Erik Acharius (10 October 1757 – 14 August 1819) was a Swedish botanist who pioneered the taxonomy of lichens and is known as the "father of lichenology." Acharius was famously the last pupil of Carl Linnaeus. Life Acharius was born in 1 ...

in his 1798 work ''Lichenographiae Sueciae Prodromus''; he called it ''Lichen aleurites'', as it was customary at the time, following the practice of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

' influential work '' Species Plantarum'', to place all lichens in the eponymously named genus ''Lichen''. In 1985, Susan Meyer transferred it to '' Imshaugia'', and assigned it as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of that newly circumscribed genus. In North America, it is commonly known as the salted starburst lichen.

Description

The lichen has a whitish to pale gray

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms ...

comprising lobes measuring 0.5–1.2 mm wide. The thallus is covered with cylindrical, brownish-tipped

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 ...

, except at the tips of the lobes. The thallus undersurface is

tan Tan or TAN may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Black and Tans, a nickname for British special constables during the Irish War of Independence. By extension "Tans" can now also colloquially refer to English or British people in general, es ...

to whitish, and numerous short brown

rhizine In lichens, rhizines are multicellular root-like structures, arising mostly from the lower surface. A lichen with rhizines is termed rhizinate, while a lichen lacking rhizines is termed erhizinate. Rhizines serve only to anchor the lichen to their ...

s serves as holdfasts that attach the lichen to its substrate.

Apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mos ...

and

pycnidia A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or inverse ...

are rare in this species.

Habitat and distribution

''Imshaugia aleurites'' is widely distributed in Canada and the eastern United States, and grows in well-lit conifer forests on the bark or wood of conifers. Its range is also spread out over Europe, where it has been recorded in 32 countries. It was added to the lichen flora of mainland China in 1999.

Species interactions

'' Tremella imshaugiae'' is a

lichenicolous fungus A lichenicolous fungus is a parasitic fungus that only lives on lichen as the host. A lichenicolous fungus is not the same as the fungus that is the component of the lichen, which is known as a lichenized fungus. They are most commonly specific to ...

that parasitizes ''Imshaugia aleurites''. Infection by the fungus results in the formation of small

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...

-coloured basidiomata on the thallus surface. It has been found growing on ''I. aleurites'' lichen thalli in Scotland and

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10546252 Parmeliaceae Lichens described in 1799 Taxa named by Erik Acharius Lichens of China Lichens of Europe Lichens of North America