Bathelium porinosporum
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| Bathelium porinosporum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Trypetheliales |
| Family: | Trypetheliaceae |
| Genus: | Bathelium |
| Species: | B. porinosporum |
| Binomial name | |
| Bathelium porinosporum | |
Bathelium porinosporum is a species of crustose lichen-forming fungus in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] The lichen forms a light olive-coloured crust on tree bark with a smooth to uneven surface. Its reproductive structures are solitary, dark reddish-brown, somewhat flattened fruiting bodies that sit directly on the lichen surface without being covered by tissue, and are unusual in the genus for producing spores with horizontal divisions rather than complex internal compartments. The species is known from Vietnam, China, and India, where it grows in tropical and subtropical forest regions.
Bathelium porinosporum was described as a new species by Robert Lücking, Matthew Nelsen, and Cécile Gueidan. The type was collected in Vietnam (Đồng Nai province) in Cát Tiên National Park in February 2012, where it was found growing on bark.[2]
The species was distinguished from other members of Bathelium by its ascospores, which are divided by transverse cross-walls – chiefly three-septate – and euseptate, meaning the walls between the spore cells and the outer spore wall are relatively thin. This spore type is unusual in the genus and, if seen in isolation, can resemble the spores of the unrelated genus Porina; the epithet porinosporum refers to this resemblance. Although the species has typical Bathelium-like, sessile, dark perithecia, it is described as the only currently recognized member of the genus with transversely septate ascospores.[2] In a later molecular phylogenetics analysis, it was recovered as sister to Bathelium madreporiforme.[3]