Allographa rhizicola (Fée) Lücking & Kalb 2018

Kalb, Jutarat, Lücking, Robert & Kalb, Klaus, 2018, The lichen genera Allographa and Graphis (Ascomycota: Ostropales, Graphidaceae) in Thailand-eleven new species, forty-seven new records and a key to all one hundred and fifteen species so far recorded for the country, Phytotaxa 377 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Allographa rhizicola (Fée) Lücking & Kalb , comb. nov.

Mycobank MB 827660

Basionym: Opegrapha rhizicola Fée, Essai Crypt. Exot. (Paris) : 33 (1825) ≡ Graphis rhizicola (Fée) Eschweiler (1833: 83) . Type:—SOUTH AMERICA [America meridionali]. Ad corticem radicum Cinchonae lancifoliae, s.c. (G, not seen).

Thallus corticolous, off-white or yellowish gray, continuous, smooth or uneven, thinly corticate, dull.Lirellae prominent, with a thick lateral and thin to very thin apical thalline margin, elongate, up to 5 mm long, straight, curved or sinuous, unbranched or irregularly branched, labia convergent, entire, partly covered by a thin thalline cortex, disc concealed, (rhizicola- morph). Exciple completely carbonized; hymenium clear; ascospores 2–6 (–8)/ascus, hyaline, transversely 14–19-septate, 75–100 × 14–15 μm; 11–25-septate, 70–130 × 10–20 μm ( Lücking et al. 2009).

Chemistry: no lichen substances by TLC (anal. J. Sutjaritturakan).

Distribution and habitat:—Probably pantropical with most known collections from the Neotropics. Reported from South America (type locality), Peru (as G. cooperta Zenker ), Nikaragua (Rivas Plata et al. 2011), Costa Rica ( Lücking et al. 2008), Caribbean (as G. anguilliformis Taylor ), Brazil (as G. serpens Fée ), Trinidad and Tobago (as Graphis anguilliformis var. infecunda Vain. , nom. invalid.) (all synonyms from Lücking et al. 2009) and from Thailand, Loei province, for the first time from Poengsungnoen et al. (2010), where it was growing in lower montane rainforest and a dry evergreen forest. The reference to this species in Buaruang et al. 2017, citing Pitakpong et al. 2015, is not from Thailand, but from Nikaragua.

Remarks:—Similar are first generation lirellae of Allographa acharii (lirellae without striation; see above), but this species can easily be separated in having muriform ascospores.

Material from Thailand examined:— Trang province: Mueang district, in the area of Ban Napo Moo 1, on bark of an unidentified tree, 30 m, 07°31’23’’ N, 99°52’47’’ E, 28 May 2012, J. Sutjaritturakan 4657 (hb. K. & J. Kalb 42438) .