Neoprotoparmelia siamisidiata Garima Singh & Aptroot

Singh, Garima, ptroot, Andre, ico, Victor J., tte, Juergen, Pradeep K. Divakar,, Crespo, Ana, Caceres, Marcela Eugenia da Silva, H. Thorsten Lumbsch, & Schmitt, Imke, 2018, Neoprotoparmelia gen. nov. and Maronina (Lecanorales, Protoparmelioideae): species description and generic delimitation using DNA barcodes and phenotypical characters, MycoKeys 44, pp. 19-50 : 19

Neoprotoparmelia siamisidiata Garima Singh & Aptroot sp. nov. Figure 13

Type.

THAILAND. Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep–Ou National Park, Medicinal Garden 18°48'17"N, 98°54'43"E, ca. 1100 m alt., on bark of Cinchona pubescens , 13 October 2002, H.J.M. Sipman 48520 (holotype: B).

Diagnosis.

Similar to Neoprotoparmelia brasilisidiata , but mainly differs from it by the presence of 16-spored asci.

Etymology.

Named after the place of discovery, Siam (Thailand) and the presence of isidia.

Description.

Thallus consisting of slightly convex areoles of up to ca. 0.1 mm thick and 0.3 mm wide which are mostly coalescent to form a rimose thallus, somewhat shiny, pale brown to dark brown or mottled whitish-grey, on a fully immersed dark hypothallus, marginal prothallus black, thin or absent. Isidia always numerous, initially widely dispersed or somewhat clustered, eventually covering much of the thallus, up to 1.5 mm long, persistently 0.05-0.07 mm wide over their whole length, cylindrical, usually rather irregularly once or repeatedly branched and somewhat nodulose, glossy, pale to dark brown, tips generally dark brown. Apothecia sessile, initially round, older ones usually with wavy boundaries, 0.6-1.5 mm diam., disc flat, smooth, glossy, dark brown to orange brown. Margin glossy, ca. 0.25 mm wide, glossy brown at the outside, not or only slightly higher than the disc. Hymenium hyaline, not inspersed with oil droplets, up to 90 μm high; epihymenium fuscous brown, pigment in KOH becoming soluble and paler; hypothecium hyaline, up to 120 μm thick including subhymenium; excipulum hyaline throughout, with a 20-30 μm thick layer of cortex, without crystals, with algae, extending below the hypothecium (cupulate). Paraphyses branched, ca. 2.5 μm wide, not thickened at the tips. Asci cylindrico-clavate, blue, up to 35 × 9 μm, with 16 mostly biseriate ascospores. Ascospores hyaline, simple, broadly ellipsoid, not constricted, 9-11 × 6.5-8 μm, without appendages. Pycnidia not observed.

Chemistry.

Spot tests: medulla of thallus and isidia UV+ greenish-white, C–, P–, K–, KC+ pink. TLC: alectoronic acid (major), dehydroalectoronic acid (minor or trace) and β-alectoronic acid (trace).

Distribution and ecology.

On tree bark in a Park. Known only from Thailand (Chiang Mai).

Remarks.

This comprises the specimens recovered within ' P. isidiata C’ in ' Protoparmelia tropical clade’ in Singh et al. (2015). It is similar to the other four isidiate Neoprotoparmelia species but can be distinguished from them by the presence of 16-spored asci. For additional specimens from Thailand, see Aptroot et al. (2007, as Protoparmelia isidiata ). It can be distinguished from Neoprotoparmelia corallifera only by presence of 8-spored asci (Aproot et al. 1997a) and by using molecular data.