4. Licea belmontiana Nann. -Bremek., Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch., C. 69(3): 337 (1966). Figs. 4A–J

Sporophores sporocarpic, dispersed or grouped, sessile. Sporocarps subglobose, angular, 0.05–0.2 mm diam., dark brown. Peridium apparently single, brown by TL with preformed dehiscence lines; dehiscence into polygonal plates that remain vertical like petals with smooth edges without outgrowths but minutely crenulate. Spores dark brown in mass, light brown with a slightly paler area by TL, subglose, 10–14 µm diam., apparently smooth. By SEM the peridium is double the inner surface of the peridium is ornamented with dense tiny warts (granular) that continue to the platelet margins, the margin is crenulated; the epispore is verrucate with irregularly sparsely spaced warts and some areas with no warts.

Material examined: Holotypus. NETHERLANDS. Wageningen, Belmonte Botanic Gardens, on bark from an Acer sp. stump in moist chamber culture, 2-4-1965. NENB-5879 (BR-MYC 5020057898868)! .

Habitat: on bark, trunks and stumps of angiosperms and gymnosperms.

Distribution: Norway, Sweden, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, India, USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile.

Icon.: Nannenga-Bremekamp (1966: 337, Figs. 1 A – C; 1975: 64; 1991: 43), Neubert et al. (1993: 282, Pl. V: 1), Novozhilov et al. (1999: 84, Figs. 3 A – D), Yamamoto (2002b: 4, Figs. 2 A – C; 2006: 13, Figs. 4 A – C; 2021: 139, Figs. A – C), Novozhilov & Schnittler (2008: 108, Figs. 26–27), Schnittler et al. (2013: 101, Figs. 31–34 (as L. cf. belmontiana), Bortnikov et al. (2022: 25, Figs. 3a–k).

Notes. This species was described as having smooth spores on the basis of light microscope examination available to its author at that time. However, our examination of the holotype by SEM has shown that the spores are not entirely smooth, since the epispore has some widely-spaced warts of different size (Fig. 4 I).

In the original description the species is characterized as having a single peridium with included granular matter, but our SEM micrographs show (Fig. 4 H arrow), that the granular matter forms a complete layer, so the peridium is double. This fact was pointed out also by Novozhilov et al. (1999) for collections they ascribed to this species. The spore size in the original description was given as about 13 µm in diameter, but the author herself specified the wider range in her later expanded monographs (Nannenga-Bremekamp 1975, 1991, 2022). According to GBIF, there is a collection marked as isotypus in UPS BOT F 646101.