Gymnoderma insulare
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| Gymnoderma insulare | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Lecanorales |
| Family: | Cladoniaceae |
| Genus: | Gymnoderma |
| Species: | G. insulare |
| Binomial name | |
| Gymnoderma insulare Yoshim. & Sharp (1968) | |
Gymnoderma insulare is a species of lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It is native to Japan and Taiwan, where it grows in old-growth temperate forests. The species is classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List due to its limited distribution and threats to its habitat.
The species was first formally described by Isao Yoshimura and Aaron John Sharp in 1968. The type specimen was collected in Japan by Syo Kurokawa on 7 November 1957, in the Kii Province on Mount Kōya, located on the island of Honshu. It was found growing on the trunk of Cryptomeria japonica at an elevation of around 800 metres.[2]
Description
The primary thallus of Gymnoderma insulare is made up of medium-sized scales (squamules), 5–10 mm long and 2–4 mm thick, with a narrowed base, more or less spatula-shaped, slightly lobed, and rounded. It lacks soredia and isidia. The upper surface is ochre-grey, dull, and has a cortex that reacts with potassium hydroxide (K+) by turning pale yellow, but does not react with para-phenylenediamine (P−) or calcium hypochlorite (C−). The underside lacks a cortex, is whitish or greyish-white, striated, and has ascending tips. There are no rhizines (root-like structures).[2]
The cortical layer of the primary thallus is 60–80 μm thick and composed of densely interwoven and glued hyphae, but without forming a paraplectenchyma (a tissue made of tightly packed cells). The medullary layer is 150 μm thick, made up of loosely interwoven hyphae about 3 μm thick, whitish, and unreactive to K, P, and ultraviolet light (UV–). It contains didymic acid (iron [Fe+] test yields a blue reaction, C+ test results in a bluish-green reaction). No cephalodia (structures containing cyanobacteria) are present.[2]
The podetia (stalk-like structures) arise from the margin of the primary thallus, are fairly short or abortive, cylindrical, simple, pale, solid, and covered with a continuous cortex layer that does not contain algae. Apothecia (fruiting bodies) are solitary or clustered, 0.5–0.8 mm wide, pale, biatorine (with no photobiont layer in the margin), and turn brownish or dark brown to black. The spores are hyaline (colourless and translucent), non-septate, oblong, 8–12 μm long, and 3 μm wide.[2]
It resembles Gymnoderma coccocarpum in form, but contains different chemical substances. The photobiont partner is a green alga from the genus Trebouxia.[2]