Biatorella


Biatorella is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Biatorellaceae.

Taxonomy

The genus Biatorella was established by Giuseppe De Notaris in 1846. In his diagnosis, De Notaris characterised the genus by hemispherical, tubercle-like apothecia with a broad, closely attached base. The apothecia are somewhat waxy, bright orange, and lack a proper margin ; the central mass is reddish and bears the spore-producing layer on the upper surface. The spore-containing sacs are club-shaped and eight-spored, and the accompanying paraphyses are very slender. The spores are transparent, elongate-linear with blunt ends, and arranged in a single row.
De Notaris described the thallus as leprose, very thin, greenish, and loosely effuse across the substrate. He included a single species in the original circumscription, Biatorella rousselii, separating it from Biatora by the absence of a proper excipulum, by its hemispherical, and by the thallus structure. He noted that B. roussellii had been previously described by Durieu de Maisonneuve|Durieu] and Montagne in their work on Algerian cryptogams. In Italy, he recorded it on bare soil at field margins above Genoa and considered it rare. He also remarked that spore-like granules within the spores indicated that the spores were not yet mature.

Species

, Species Fungorum accept 27 species of Biatorella.