lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.fungi. It is the only genus in the family Strangosporaceae, which itself is of uncertain taxonomic placement in the
Ascomycota
Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...
. It contains 10 species.
Taxonomy
The genus 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 ...
in 1860 by German lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber, with '' Strangospora pinicola'' assigned as the type species. The family Strangosporaceae was proposed in 2014 by Soili Stenroos, Jolanta Miadlikowska, and François Lutzoni, who used molecular phylogenetics to demonstrate that ''Strangospora'' should be removed from the Lecanorales and placed in its own family.
Description
Species in the Strangosporaceae are crustose lichens, but sometimes have poorly developed thalli. They have a chlorococcoid photobiont (i.e.,
green algae
The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...
of the genus ''
Chlorococcum
''Chlorococcum'' is a genus of green algae, in the family Chlorococcaceae. The alga may be useful in the flocculation of lipids from wastewater.
Species
, AlgaeBase accepted the following species:
*'' Chlorococcum acidum'' P.A.Archibald & Bold
* ...
''). The apothecia are biatorine – i.e. more or less in form, but light in colour and with a soft consistency – and have a poorly developed . The
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 ...
are club-shaped (''clavate'') and have a gelatinous outer layer. ''Strangospora'' species mostly occur in the Northern Hemisphere, and grow on wood, on bark, or over bryophytes.
Piccolia ochrophora
''Piccolia'' is a small genus of crustose lichens in the class Lecanoromycetes. First circumscribed by Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in 1864, it contains ten species. Due to a lack of molecular data, it has not been assigne ...
'', while ''Strangospora delitescens'' is now ''
Biatoridium delitescens
''Biatoridium'' is a genus of fungi
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are cl ...