Sticta madidiensis Ossowska, B. Moncada, Luecking & Kukwa, 2024

Ossowska, Emilia Anna, Moncada, Bibiana, Luecking, Robert, Flakus, Adam, Rodriguez-Flakus, Pamela, Olszewska, Sandra & Kukwa, Martin, 2024, Additional new species and new records of the genus Sticta (lichenised Ascomycota, lobarioid Peltigeraceae) from Bolivia, MycoKeys 105, pp. 21-47 : 21

Sticta madidiensis Ossowska, B. Moncada, Luecking & Kukwa sp. nov.

Fig. 4

Diagnosis.

Differing from other Sticta in having up to 1 cm long stipe, a palmate to irregular thalli, without vegetative propagules and apothecia, with scabrid upper surface.

Type.

Bolivia. Dept. La Paz; Prov. Franz Tamayo, Parque Nacional y Área Natural de Manejo Integrado Madidi, below Keara Bajo , 14°41'90"S, 69°03'51"W, elev. 3060 m, open area with shrubs and scattered trees, Ceja de Monte Inferior (Altimontano), on shrubs, 18 Nov 2014, M. Kukwa 14879 (holotype UGDA, isotype LPB) .

Description.

Primary photobiont cyanobacterial ( Nostoc ). Stipe present, up to 1 cm long. Thallus palmate to irregular, coriaceous, up to 15 cm diam., moderately branched, with 3-5 branches per 5 cm radius, branching pleurotomous to polytomous; lobes laciniate to ligulate, imbricate, partly involute, with their apices obtuse and acute and their margins entire to sinuous, thickened; lobe internodes 4(7-)-17(-20) mm long, (5-)8-9(-12) mm broad. Upper surface smooth to slightly canaliculate, brown to brownish-grey in central part of thallus when dry, with darker apices and darker marginal line, shiny; surface slightly scrobiculate to rugose, with papillae in young parts of lobes and without pruina, but with irregular, scattered, beige maculae; marginal cilia sparse to abundant fasciculate, white to brown, up to 1 mm, in some areas extension of the lower tomentum present. Apothecia absent. Vegetative propagules absent. Lower surface smooth, yellow-beige to orange-beige; primary tomentum dense, thick, but thinner towards the margin, fasciculate to spongy, soft, whitish-yellow to dark brown in the centre; secondary tomentum present, sparse, pubescent. Rhizines absent. Cyphellae 1-10 per cm2 towards the thallus centre and 21-40 per cm2 towards the margin, dispersed, rounded to elongate, urceolate with wide pore, erumpent to prominent, remaining below the level of the primary tomentum, with the margin raised and involute or rarely erect, cream to dark brown-coloured, without tomentum; pore (0.25-)0.5-1(-2) mm diam.; basal membrane scabrid, white. Medulla compact, white. Apothecia not found.

Upper cortex paraplectenchymatous, up to 50 μm thick, differentiated into two cellular layers with the upper layer consisting of 1-2 layers of smaller cells, cells 5-15 × 5-10 μm, their walls 1-3 μm thick and their lumina rounded to irregular, 4-14 × 4-9 μm. Photobiont layer 30-60 μm thick, its cells 10-20 μm diam. Medulla 110-150 μm thick, its hyphae 4-5 μm broad, without crystals. Lower cortex paraplectenchymatous, 30-40 μm thick, with 2-4 cell layers; cells 7-16 μm × 6-12 diam., their walls 1-3 μm thick. Hairs of lower primary tomentum up to 500 μm long, in fascicles of more than 10, hyphae unbranched, septate with free apices; secondary tomentum sparse of up to 10 μm long. Cyphellae cavity up to 140 μm deep; cells of basal membrane without or with one papilla.

Secondary chemistry.

No lichen substances detected by TLC. Basal membrane of cyphellae, K+ yellowish, C-, KC-, P-. Medulla K+ yellowish, C-, KC-, P-.

Habitat and distribution.

Sticta madidiensis was found on shrubs in mountain vegetation with scattered trees. The species is known only from one locality in in the Madidi protected area in the La Paz Department.

Etymology.

The name refers to the type locality.

Notes.

The new species has a palmate thallus with a stipe, similar to S. catharinae recently described from Bolivia ( Ossowska et al. 2022a), which is, however, not related to the new species (Fig. 1 ). However, cilia in the new species are sparse to abundant and white to brown, whereas in S. catharinae , they are abundant, agglutinated to fasciculate, dark brown with paler tips ( Ossowska et al. 2022a). Furthermore, S. catharinae produces apothecia, which are not known in S. madidiensis ( Ossowska et al. 2022a). Another taxon with palmate thalli is S. neopulmonarioides B. Moncada & Coca (a form with cyanobacteria), but it has abundant, laminal and marginal propagules (phyllidia and lobules) without apothecia (the form with green alga has apothecia, but the thallus is larger than in S. madidiensis and irregular). In addition, the primary tomentum is absent towards the margins. Sticta neopulmonaroides is known only from Colombia ( Moncada 2012; Moncada et al. 2013a).

Figures

Figure 1. Best-scoring Maximum Likelihood tree of the Sticta target clade containing the new species from Bolivia (red) and the species new to Bolivia and phylogenetically confirmed from Bolivia (blue), based on the fungal ITS barcoding marker. Supported clades are thickened. For complete tree with individual support values, see Suppl. material 2.

Figure 4. Morphology of Sticta madidiensis (holotype) A, B upper surface C, D lower surface E marginal cilia and extension of the lower tomentum F scabrid upper surface G lower tomentum with cyphellae H section of cyphella. Scale bars: 1 mm (A-G); 50 μm (H).