Amandinea


Amandinea is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Caliciaceae. Genetic studies indicates that the genus Amandinea and Buellia are the same, although this is not widely accepted.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally circumscribed by Maurice Choisy in 1950, with Amandinea coniops assigned as the type species. However, the name was published invalidly because it was not accompanied by a Latin description or diagnosis, a requirement of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, [fungi, and plants|nomenclatural rules] of the time. Christoph Scheidegger and Helmut Mayrhofer published the genus name validly in 1993. The generic name honours French Madame Amandine Manière, an acquaintance of Choisy.

Description

Amandinea species have a crustose thallus ranging from cracked to slightly blistered. The internal white layer is iodine-negative, meaning it does not turn blue in the standard iodine test and is therefore non-amyloid. The photosynthetic partner is a green alga, i.e. with small, spherical cells. Sexual fruiting bodies are apothecia with either a margin or a margin. These apothecia may be partly sunk into the thallus or sit on top of it, with either a broad or narrowed base; the are typically black or nearly so. The tissue beneath the spore layer is pale to dark brown, sometimes with olive tones.
Inside the apothecia, the is made of paraphyses—microscopic, partitioned threads that run between the spore sacs. These are unbranched or branch only near the tip; the tips are swollen and pigmented, and many bear a dark brown cap. The asci are club-shaped and of the Lecanora-type; they usually contain eight spores, though four or more than eight may occur. The ascospores are brown and 1-septate, sometimes showing a thicker median wall; their surfaces are often finely wrinkled, a feature that generally requires electron microscopy to see reliably. Asexual reproduction is common via pycnidia that produce curved, thread-like conidia up to about 30 μm long. Chemical tests rarely detect secondary metabolites in this genus, while most species show no substances detectable by thin-layer chromatography.

Species

, Species Fungorum accepts 94 species of Amandinea.