Xanthoria polycarpa (Hoffm.) Frödén, Arup & Søchting, 2013
| Common name | Pin-cushion Sunburst Lichen | |
|---|---|---|
| Code |
XANTPOL | |
| Field Characters | Small leafy chlorolichen. Thalli form small, rounded, bright-orange cushions typically less than the size of a quarter. Lobes tend to be short and rounded. Stipitate apothecia typically are common but may be lacking. Laminal, immersed pycnidia present, conidia averaging 2.7 × 1.3 µm. No vegetative propagules. Lower cortex white, lacking rhizines, instead attaching with small peg-like haptors. Some of our material is poorly developed, but the morphology and pycnidia measurements fit those in Lindblom (1997). | |
| Similar species |
Xanthoria candelaria: lobes narrow, with granular soreida forming on the lobe tips and along lobe margins.
Xanthomendoza hasseana & X. montana: rosettes more appressed, lobes with abundant white rhizines. |
|
| Ecology | Epiphytic and on downed wood. Occasional in the southern boreal, parkland and grassland. Apparently absent from other natural regions. In Edmonton this is a rare river valley and parkland epiphyte (Haughland et al. 2022). | |
| Chemistry | Upper cortex PD-, K+ purple, C-, KC- (but difficult to discern due to K+ purple), UV- (variety of anthraquinones: parietin, fallacinal, emodin, teloschistin and parietinic acid by TLC according to Lindblom 2004b). Medulla typically white with all spot tests negative. | |
| Molecular support |
No new AB sequences generated. A variable species in need of phylogenetic work. Genus-level support provided by Arup et al. (2013). | |
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