Dictyonema discocarpum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dictyonema discocarpum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Hygrophoraceae |
| Genus: | Dictyonema |
| Species: | D. discocarpum |
| Binomial name | |
| Dictyonema discocarpum Lücking, Dal-Forno & Wilk (2013) | |
 Holotype: Madidi National Park, Bolivia | |
Dictyonema discocarpum is a species of lichen-forming fungus in the family Hygrophoraceae.[1] It is a filamentous, blue‑green basidiolichen (a lichen whose fungal partner is a basidiomycete) that grows in thin, shelf‑like mats on tree bark in Bolivian cloud forest. Described in 2013, it is one of three Dictyonema species discovered together in the same Andean reserve and is readily recognized by the tiny, white "pin‑head" discs that speckle the underside of each shelf.
The species was named by Robert Lücking, Manuela Dal Forno and Karina Wilk from material collected in Madidi National Park, La Paz Department, Bolivia, at about 2,200 m (7,200 ft) elevation. The specific epithet discocarpum ("bearing discs") refers to its round fruiting patches. DNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region places the fungus within Dictyonema in the strict sense (sensu stricto), closely related to the widespread D. sericeum but forming its own clade. Like D. sericeum it forms shelf‑like lobes, yet only D. discocarpum produces neatly rounded, crisp‑edged hymenophores ("disc‑shaped" basidiocarps) on the lower surface.[2]