Loflammia
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| Loflammia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Lecanorales |
| Family: | Ectolechiaceae |
| Genus: | Loflammia Vězda (1986) |
| Type species | |
| Loflammia flammea (Müll.Arg.) Vězda (1986) | |
| Species | |
Loflammia is a small genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Ectolechiaceae. The genus was established by the Czech lichenologist Antonín Vězda in 1986 to accommodate a group of foliicolous (leaf-dwelling) lichens with distinctive reddish fruiting bodies. These lichens form small greyish-white crusts on the surfaces of living leaves in tropical forests, and are recognised by their bright carmine-red disc-shaped reproductive structures. Species are known from Central and South America, Africa, and Papua New Guinea.
Loflammia was established by Antonín Vězda in 1986 as one of five new genera created to accommodate species formerly placed in Bacidia and Lopadium that shared a Sporopodium-type ascus structure. These genera—Badimia, Barubria, Calopadia, Loflammia, and Logilvia—were separated from the informal "Lobaca" group that Vězda had introduced in 1983, and all were included in the family Ectolechiaceae because of their characteristic campylidia (specialised conidiomata derived from apothecia).[1]
Vězda designated Loflammia flammea (originally Lopadium flammeum Müll.Arg.[2]) as the type species, and recognised additional species such as L. gabrielis and L. intermedia, which had been discussed by Rolf Santesson in his 1952 monograph on foliicolous lichens. In his description, Vězda noted that Loflammia is closely related to Sporopodium, Tapellaria, and Lasioloma, but can be distinguished from all of them by a combination of features: its reddish apothecia, a paraplectenchymatous exciple (in which the rim tissue around the disc is composed of small, tightly packed cells) that turns yellow to red when treated with potassium hydroxide solution, and distinctive campylidia with red apices. These features, together with its foliicolous habit, were used by Vězda to justify its recognition as a separate genus within the Ectolechiaceae.[1]