Cladonia grayi G.Merr. ex Sandst.

Farkas, Edit, Lőkös, László & Veres, Katalin, 2023, Analysis of lichen secondary metabolites and morphometrics in the Cladonia chlorophaea species group (Cladoniaceae, lichenized Ascomycota) in Hungary, Cryptogamie, Mycologie 20 (5), pp. 61-82 : 71-72

Cladonia grayi G.Merr. ex Sandst.

( Fig. 13 )

NOTES

The Hungarian sepecimens contain fumarprotocetraric, grayanic and 4-O-demethyl-grayanic acids.

Their colour is rather grayish, from greenish to pale gray, at base weakly melanotic ( Stenroos et al. 2011, 2016; Ahti et al. 2013). Podetia are medium tall (1.9-16 mm) with relatively wide (0.7-6.2 mm) and high (0.4-6.8 mm) cup. C. grayi differs from C. asahinae in the ratio of podetium height to cup width, from C. chlorophaea in podetium height, from C. merochlorophaea in size of soredia and width of stalk. None of the measured characters were significantly different between C. cryptochlorophaea , C. novochlorophaea and C. grayi ( Table 1 ).

The species is extremely rare in Hungary and it represents a new distribution record to the country, collected on acidic soil mostly, more often in coniferous forests, but occasionally on Quercus spp. , between 200-300 m a.s.l. in the Vendvidék, W-Hungary only. Matwiejuk (2017) reported its frequency

from pine forests. The localities in W-Hungary are also rich in pine forests.

Figures

FIG. 13. — Cladonia grayi G.Merr. ex Sandst.: A, habit (BP[BP 52041]); B, spots of lichen secondary metabolites on chromatographic plates; C, distribution in Hungary. Abbreviations: g, grayanic acid; 4Odmg, 4-O-demethylgrayanic acid; F, fumarprotocetraric acid; Z, zeorin; N, norstictic acid. Scale bar: A, 2 mm.