Gyalectidium membranaceum
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| Gyalectidium membranaceum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Graphidales |
| Family: | Gomphillaceae |
| Genus: | Gyalectidium |
| Species: | G. membranaceum |
| Binomial name | |
| Gyalectidium membranaceum | |
Gyalectidium membranaceum is a species of lichen-forming fungus in the family Gomphillaceae.[1] It is a tiny, foliicolous (leaf-dwelling) lichen known only from cloud forest on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The species is distinguished by its unusual bluish, membrane-like reproductive structures, and no sexual fruiting bodies have been observed.
Gyalectidium membranaceum was described as a new species in 2001 by Emmanuël Sérusiaux and Robert Lücking. In the original account, it was characterized by its thin, meagre thallus and by hyphophores (asexual reproductive structures) reduced to a bluish, membrane-like layer that covers a mass of conidial spores (diahyphae).[2]
The species was compared with Gyalectidium imperfectum, which also has hyphophores reduced to adnate spots. G. membranaceum differs by having much thinner, more membrane-like hyphophores and a thallus that is distinctly cracked into small patches (areolate) rather than finely warty (verrucose). The authors suggested that the membranaceous layer together with the diahyphal mass functions as a single dispersal unit, since many thalli have strongly scalloped (crenate) margins where these structures appear to have been removed as a whole.[2]