Dictyonema applanatum
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| Dictyonema applanatum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Hygrophoraceae |
| Genus: | Dictyonema |
| Species: | D. applanatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Dictyonema applanatum Lücking, Dal-Forno & Wilk (2013) | |
 Holotype: Madidi National Park, Bolivia | |
Dictyonema applanatum is a little‑known, blue‑green basidiolichen (a lichen whose fungal partner belongs to the Basidiomycota) in the family Hygrophoraceae. Formally described as a new species in 2013, it was discovered in the cloud forests of northern Bolivia. The species carpets bark and dangling vines with a thin, felt‑like layer of microscopic threads (hyphae) that weave together the fungus and its cyanobacterial partner.
Dictyonema applanatum was introduced as a new species in 2013 by Robert Lücking, Manuela Dal Forno and Karina Wilk in a survey of Bolivian basidiolichens. The holotype was collected at 2,177 m (7,142 ft) elevation in Madidi National Park, La Paz Department, where it grew on a liana in lower montane rainforest. Morphologically the new taxon is set apart by a completely horizontal mat of cyanobacterial threads (fibrils) held down by a gelatinous, whitish film; this "flat" habit is echoed in the Latin epithet applanatum.[1]
Molecular data place the species in Dictyonema in the strict sense (sensu stricto), one of five genera that make up the broader "Dictyonema clade" in the family Hygrophoraceae.[2] Within that group D. applanatum belongs to the appressed‑filamentous grade, yet it is not closely related to the superficially similar D. metallicum from Ecuador.[1]