Graphis slendrae
Graphis slendrae is a species of script lichen in the family Graphidaceae. This bark-dwelling lichen forms white to pale grey crusts with distinctive long, radiately branched fruiting structures that have finely lined edges and blackened internal walls. It is known only from the rainforests of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, where it was originally collected by the lichenologist Mason Hale.
Taxonomy
The species was formally described in 2009 based on an unpublished name by Mason Hale. The type locality is Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, where the holotype specimen was collected by Hale and is housed at the United States National Herbarium. The specific epithet refers to the original collector's label name "slendrae". Graphis slendrae is considered most closely related to Graphis dupaxana, with which it shares fruiting structures having a completely and striate, as well as small, transversely septate ascospores and the absence of detectable secondary metabolites. It is distinguished from G. dupaxana by its lirellae, which are much longer and radiately branched, compared with the prominent, shorter, and more sparsely branched lirellae of G. dupaxana.
Description
The thallus is corticate, smooth to uneven in texture, and white to pale grey in colour. The lirellae are prominent, have a basal, and are very long and radiately branched, measuring 1–10 mm in length by 0.1–0.2 mm in width. Their edges are striate. The is completely carbonised, and the hymenium is clear. Each ascus contains eight ascospores, which are hyaline, 5–7-septate, and measure 25–35 × 5–7 μm.
Habitat and distribution
No lichen secondary metabolites have been detected in this species. Graphis slendrae is known from Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, where it grows on bark in forested habitats.