Calicium viride

Calicium viride, commonly known as the green stubble lichen, is a species of pin lichen in the family Caliciaceae, and the type species of the genus Calicium. It is a common and widely distributed species in temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere and southern South America.

Calicium viride
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Caliciales
Family: Caliciaceae
Genus: Calicium
Species:
C. viride
Binomial name
Calicium viride
Pers. (1794)

Taxonomy

It was described as a new species by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1794.[1] Calcium viride is the type species of the genus Calicium. The common name for the lichen in North America is "green stubble lichen".[2]

The Calicium viride group is the name of a clade of closely related species that all have ascomata supported on relatively large and sturdy stalks, and spores with a distinctive spiral ornamentation. This group also includes C. corynellum, C. salicinum, and C. quercinum, as well as Cyphelium lecideinum, which lacks a stalk but also has spiral-striated spores.[3]

Description

Calicium viride has a greenish-yellow thallus with a granular texture that grows as a crust on the surface of its substrate. The small black stalks, 1.5–2.5 mm long and roughly 0.1–0.15 mm thick, support the spore-bearing structures: at the tip of each stalk is a capitulum–a spherical apothecium. The capitula are black with a brownish underside.[2]

Calicium corynellum is a rarer species that is somewhat similar in appearance to C. viride, but it grows on rock instead of wood or bark, and it has shorter stalks, typically 0.5–0.6 mm long.[4]

It contains the secondary chemicals rhizocarpic acid and epanorin.[2]

Habitat and distribution

The lichen is common on the bark and wood of conifer trees in montane forests, but sometimes grows on deciduous trees.[2]

References
  1. Persoon, C.H. (1794). "Einige Bemerkungen über die Flechten". Annalen der Botanik (Usteri) (in German). 7: 1–32.
  2. Brodo, Irwin M.; Sharnoff, Sylvia Duran; Sharnoff, Stephen (2001). Lichens of North America. Yale University Press. pp. 193–194. ISBN 978-0300082494.
  3. Prieto, Maria; Wedin, Mats (2016). "Phylogeny, taxonomy and diversification events in the Caliciaceae". Fungal Diversity. 82 (1): 221–238. doi:10.1007/s13225-016-0372-y.
  4. Simkin, Janet (24 January 2003). Calicium corynellum (Ach.) Ach (PDF) (Report). United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan.
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