Aspicilia cinerea

Nordin, Anders, 2015, New synonyms and lectotypes in Aspicilia (Megasporaceae, Ascomycota), Phytotaxa 192 (3), pp. 197-200 : 197

Aspicilia cinerea (L.) Körber (1855: 164)

Basionym:— Lichen cinereus Linnaeus (1767a: 709 , 1767b: 132). Type:— SWITZERLAND. In m. Belpberg. Schaerer, Lich. Helv. exs. 127 (neotype, designated by Jørgensen et al. 1994:374, UPS!).

= Lecanora delimitata Magnusson (1952: 188) . Type:— SWEDEN. Torne lappmark: Jukkasjärvi par., Abisko, Jebrenjokk, 16 July 1919, A. H. Magnusson 3303 (holotype UPS!). syn. nov.

Aspicilia cinerea is very variable, both i n terms of morphology and DNA sequence variation in the Internal Transcribed Spacer, and is most probably to be regarded as a species complex, but there is poor correspondence between morphological and molecular variation ( Roux et al. 2011). The type of Lecanora delimitata differs from most other specimens mainly by its partly shiny, yellow-brown thallus, with slightly elongated marginal areoles. In other respects it does not differ significantly from other A. cinerea specimens, although the surrounding, black, slightly effigurate prothallus is unusually conspicuous. In addition to the type specimen there are two more collections in UPS determined to L. delimitata by Magnusson, but the yellow-brown parts of these are not as dominant as in the type. One of these is from the same area as the type, the other from the province of Möre and Romsdal in Norway.