Calicium victorianum
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| Calicium victorianum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Caliciales |
| Family: | Caliciaceae |
| Genus: | Calicium |
| Species: | C. victorianum |
| Binomial name | |
| Calicium victorianum | |
| Synonyms | |
Calicium victorianum is a lichen-forming fungus in the family Caliciaceae. This tiny lichen is almost invisible to the naked eye, living inside weathered wood and producing minute, bell-shaped fruiting bodies that look like dark specks on the surface. Originally discovered in Australia in 1889 growing on Eucalyptus fence posts, it specialises in colonising hard, sun-exposed wood that has been naturally weathered. The species has an unusual distribution, being found in Australia, New Zealand, and also at a single site in southern England, making it one of the few lichens with such a widely scattered range between the Southern and Northern Hemispheres.
Calicium victorianum was first introduced by the Victorian botanist Frederick Wilson in 1889 under the name Trachylia victoriana, based on specimens growing on weather-beaten Eucalyptus palings in south-eastern Australia.[1] Two years later Wilson described Calicium piperatum from the same district;[2] modern study of the type material shows the two names apply to a single species. Subsequent combinations in Cyphelium and Calicium were proposed, but it was Leif Tibell's 1987 monograph that settled the current placement and listed an additional synonym, Calicium obconicum.[3] The species belongs to the pin-lichen family Caliciaceae within the order Lecanorales. Tibell recognised two subspecies: subsp. victorianum, with slightly stalked ascomata and smaller spores, and subsp. desidiosum, in which the fruiting bodies are almost sessile and the spores larger and more finely ornamented.[4]
Molecular work on nuclear internal transcribed spacer rDNA sequences places C. victorianum in the "Clade I" assemblage of Calicium, adjoining C. tricolor and the Himalayan C. pyriforme. Although support values are weak, the clade is distinguished chemically: unlike many in the genus it lacks xanthones and instead accumulates the depsidone compound physodalic acid, a compound otherwise rare in the Caliciaceae.[4]