Fellhanera
Fellhanera is a genus of mostly leaf-dwelling lichens in the family Pilocarpaceae. Established by the lichenologist Antonín Vězda in 1986 and named in honour of the Austrian lichenologist Josef Hafellner, the genus comprises 63 accepted species as of 2025. These small lichens form powdery, crust-like growths that adhere tightly to their substrate without developing a true protective skin, and they produce distinctive chemical compounds including roccellic acid and zeorin that help distinguish them from similar-looking genera.
Taxonomy
Fellhanera was established by Antonín Vězda in 1986 for a set of mainly leaf-dwelling lichens with hyaline, septate ascospores that had been scattered across the catch-all genera Bacidia, Catillaria, and Lopadium. Vězda had earlier treated the group informally as Lobaca, but as ascus structure became a key criterion in the 1980s he split the material into two groups: species with a Byssoloma-type apical apparatus were placed in Pilocarpaceae as Fellhanera, while those with Sporopodium-type asci were moved to ectolechiaceous genera. He designated Fellhanera fuscatula as the type species and made 17 new combinations at publication.In Vězda's circumscription, Fellhanera is by apothecia ; a exciple ; thin paraphyses that are simple to branched and often anastomosing ; and asci sheathed in a thin amyloid gel with an amyloid of the Byssoloma type. The ascospores are colourless, ellipsoid, typically 1- or 3-septate, only rarely weakly ; the conidiomata are and wart-like, producing simple conidia. Vězda separated Fellhanera from the pilocarpacean genera Byssoloma and Byssolecania chiefly by the : in Fellhanera it is paraplectenchymatous, whereas many Byssoloma species have a , often crystal-rich exciple that sometimes only becomes clear after treatment with potassium hydroxide solution, so superficial similarity can be misleading.
The genus name is an anagram honouring Josef Hafellner, whose studies of ascus morphology underpinned this re-organisation; as delimited by Vězda, all included species were foliicolous lichen.
Description
Fellhanera species form a crust-like thallus that adheres tightly to the substrate but never develops a true protective skin. When young the surface usually looks powdery or scurfy, ranging from whitish through grey-green to dull ochre, and may break into shallow wart-like bumps or irregular cracks as it matures. Some species produce minute soredia or —tiny, easily detached granules that propagate the lichen vegetatively—yet even these remain embedded in the soft, corticolous crust. The algal partner is a simple green cell about 5–12 micrometres in diameter, and there is little or no distinct, so the colony often merges imperceptibly into the bark or leaf it covers.Fruiting bodies of Fellhanera lichens are small, stalkless apothecia that start flat and can become slightly domed; their may carry a delicate white bloom and vary in colour from pale beige or yellow to dark brown. The rim of fungal tissue is built of rounded cells that can erode with age, leaving the disc exposed. Within, a clear hymenium reacts blue in iodine because each club-shaped ascus has an amyloid cap and coat; eight smooth, colourless ascospores are produced, usually divided by one to seven transverse walls and sometimes surrounded by a gelatinous sheath. Many specimens remain sterile in the field and instead develop plentiful immersed pycnidia—minute pustules whose gaping ostioles release tear-drop-shaped conidia. Chemically the genus is characterised by roccellic acid, zeorin and occasionally usnic acid or asemone; dropping acetone on a scrap of thallus on a microscope slide yields a tell-tale white ring of precipitated substances, a quick test that separates Fellhanera from the look-alike genus Bacidina.
Species
, Species Fungorum accepts 63 species of Fellhanera.- Fellhanera africana
- Fellhanera albidocincta
- Fellhanera antennophora
- Fellhanera atrofuscatula
- Fellhanera baeomycoides
- Fellhanera borbonica
- Fellhanera bouteillei
- Fellhanera bullata
- Fellhanera chejuensis
- Fellhanera christiansenii
- Fellhanera colchica
- Fellhanera crucitignorum
- Fellhanera dominicana
- Fellhanera endopurpurea
- Fellhanera eriniae
- Fellhanera fallax
- Fellhanera flavostanhopeae
- Fellhanera fragilis
- Fellhanera fuscatula
- Fellhanera granulosa
- Fellhanera guatemalensis
- Fellhanera gyrophorica
- Fellhanera hybrida
- Fellhanera incolorata
- Fellhanera ivoriensis
- Fellhanera laeticolor
- Fellhanera mackeei
- Fellhanera maritima
- Fellhanera mastothallina
- Fellhanera microdiscus
- Fellhanera minnisinkorum
- Fellhanera montesfumosi
- Fellhanera naevia
- Fellhanera naevioides – Colombia
- Fellhanera nashii
- Fellhanera obscurata
- Fellhanera ochracea
- Fellhanera parvula
- Fellhanera pluviosilvestris – Australia
- Fellhanera punctata
- Fellhanera rhaphidophylli
- Fellhanera robusta
- Fellhanera rubrolecanorina
- Fellhanera semecarpi
- Fellhanera silhouettae – Seychelles
- Fellhanera silicis
- Fellhanera stictae
- Fellhanera stipitata – Sri Lanka
- Fellhanera submicrommata
- Fellhanera subtilis
- Fellhanera tasmanica – Australia
- Fellhanera termitophila – Brazil
- Fellhanera tricharioides
- Fellhanera tropica
- Fellhanera tubulifera – Costa Rica
- Fellhanera verrucifera
- ''Fellhanera viridisorediata''