Tapellaria floridensis
Tapellaria floridensis is a species of crustose lichen in the family Pilocarpaceae. It is known from subtropical Florida and has black apothecia with margins that are often conspicuously gray and dusted with, especially when young.
Taxonomy
Tapellaria floridensis was described as a new species in 2011 by Ralph Common and Robert Lücking. The holotype was collected in April 1997 in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, along the Scenic Drive near the bend near gate 14 in second-growth habitat; it is deposited in the herbarium of the Michigan State University Museum. Duplicate material is reported for the University of South Florida herbarium and Common's personal herbarium.The specific epithet floridensis refers to the state of Florida. The species was compared especially with Tapellaria malmei, which has a similar ascospore type but differs in having young apothecia without and larger ascospores.
Description
The thallus is corticolous and typically 1–2 cm across and about 30–50 micrometers thick. It forms a continuous crust with an uneven surface that is white to pale gray, and it contains a photobiont.The apothecia are and rounded, about 0.3–0.7 mm in diameter and 170–270 μm high. The disk is black, concave when young, and becomes flat to slightly convex with age. The margin is thick and prominent and is typically covered with a gray layer that may wear away with age.
Under the microscope, the is dark purplish brown, and the is also dark purplish brown; the K test is positive, giving a purplish reaction. The hymenium is about 100–120 μm high and is colorless to faintly purplish toward the top. It has branched, net-like paraphyses, and the asci are about 90–110 × 18–25 μm. The ascospores are ellipsoid and, produced 4–8 per ascus, and measure about 20–25 × 9–12 μm; no lichen substances were detected by thin-layer chromatography.
The species also produces that are sessile and hood-shaped, with a black lobe, and it forms filiform, curved conidia that are multiseptate. In Tapellaria, species are mainly separated by ascospore size and septation and by whether pruina is present on the apothecial margin; this is the main feature used to distinguish T. floridensis from similar taxa.
Tapellaria floridensis is morphologically similar to Tapellaria parvimuriformis and can be confused with it. It is separated by its white to pale grey thallus, black campylidia, and longer conidia.