Jamesiella
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jamesiella | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Jamesiella anastomosans | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Graphidales |
| Family: | Gomphillaceae |
| Genus: | Jamesiella Lücking, Sérus. & Vězda (2005) |
| Type species | |
| Jamesiella anastomosans (P.James & Vězda) Lücking, Sérus. & Vězda (2005) | |
| Species | |
|
J. anastomosans | |
Jamesiella is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Gomphillaceae.[1] Members of Jamesiella form thin, delicate crusts on tree bark, rocks, and mosses in humid tropical and temperate forests, distributed across North and South America and Europe. The genus is distinguished from its close relative Gyalideopsis by a unique type of asexual reproductive structure called thlasidia, which are specialized stalks containing both fungal filaments and algal cells that detach and disperse as complete units capable of establishing new lichens.
The genus Jamesiella was introduced in 2005 by Robert Lücking, Emmanuël Sérusiaux, and Antonín Vězda during a broader revision of generic limits in the family, and was treated as a segregate of Gyalideopsis distinguished by its isidia-like hyphophores. In that treatment, the authors separated several lineages from Gyalideopsis where they considered the differences to be substantial and functionally independent. Jamesiella was established for the Gyalideopsis anastomosans group, whose defining character is a distinctive isidioid hyphophore type called "thlasidia", described as unique within the family. The genus was named in honour of the British lichenologist Peter Wilfred James, who had collected the type species.[2]
The "thlasidia" are interpreted as modified stalked hyphophores in which the propagule-producing filaments (diahyphae) develop internally rather than being produced externally; the whole structure then detaches and functions as a dispersal unit. The type species is Jamesiella anastomosans (based on Gyalideopsis anastomosans), and the same paper made new combinations for J. perlucida and J. scotica, both originally described in Gyalideopsis.[2]