Leptogium crispatellum
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| Leptogium crispatellum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Peltigerales |
| Family: | Collemataceae |
| Genus: | Leptogium |
| Species: | L. crispatellum |
| Binomial name | |
| Leptogium crispatellum Nyl. (1888) | |
Leptogium crispatellum is a thin, bluish-grey gelatinous lichen in the family Collemataceae.[1] It is characterised by narrow, crisped lobes and abundant tiny outgrowths (isidia) and small flap-like lobules used for vegetative spread. It lacks visible hairs on either surface and anchors to its substrate with short peg-like structures (hapters). The species was described from New Zealand; records also exist from Australia, Tasmania, and the subantarctic Marion and Heard Island, while older reports from maritime Antarctica require confirmation.
The species was originally described by William Nylander in 1888 as Leptogium crispatellum,[2] based on corticolous material from Greymouth, New Zealand (collector R. Helms 214; holotype H-NYL 41462).[3] In his protologue, Nylander characterised the species by its thallus structure, noting it as almost like that of Leptogium scotinum (now Scytinium gelatinosum[4]), but distinguished by its lobes being complexly arranged and very crisp/curled, with finely crenulate margins. Nylander noted that while sterile when observed, the species might possibly represent a form of L. tremelloides that had grown together or become confluent.[2] A modern re-examination of the type confirms that the thallus lacks hairs and is attached by short hapters. In a 2018 revision of Antarctic Leptogium, L. crispatellum was retained as a distinct, non-hairy species and used as a comparison point for the newly described Antarctic species; in mitochondrial small-subunit (mtSSU) analyses it falls within the genus' "clade B".[3] An earlier molecular analysis resolved L. crispatellum and L. biloculare in a clade with a sister group relationship to Leptogium byssinum and L. terrenum.[5]
The same revision cautions that earlier Antarctic identifications labelled as L. crispatellum included specimens with a hairy lower surface, anatomy that does not match the hairless type. The authors therefore treat those Antarctic records as doubtful and recommend further collections to verify whether L. crispatellum actually occurs on the continent.[3]