Peltigera latiloba
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Peltigera latiloba | |
|---|---|
 | |
| In Alaska | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Peltigerales |
| Family: | Peltigeraceae |
| Genus: | Peltigera |
| Species: | P. latiloba |
| Binomial name | |
| Peltigera latiloba Holt.-Hartw. (2005) | |
Peltigera latiloba is a species of lichen-forming fungus in the family Peltigeraceae.[1] It is a large, leafy (foliose) lichen with broad, boat-shaped lobes and a hairy upper surface, growing on mossy ground in subalpine and low-alpine habitats. Like other members of the P. aphthosa group, it is a trimembered lichen, housing both a green alga and a cyanobacterium as photosynthetic partners. It was described in 2005 from Norway and Alaska, and has since been recorded from Greenland, East Karelia, and Kamchatka.
Peltigera latiloba was formally described as a distinct species by the Norwegian lichenologist Jon Holtan-Hartwig in 2005, based on material from Norway and Alaska.[2] In his earlier monograph on Norwegian Peltigera (excluding the P. canina group), Holtan-Hartwig treated the same taxon informally as "Peltigera sp. 1" within the P. aphthosa group.[3][2] The species was described as similar to P. leucophlebia, but differing in its usually broader lobes, a densely hairy (tomentose) upper surface, and a netlike, pitted lower surface.[2] Holtan-Hartwig's 1993 treatment provides the fuller morphological discussion of the taxon under the provisional name "Peltigera sp. 1".[3]
The type specimen was collected in Norway (Finnmark, Karasjok Municipality), just south of the river Njiv'lujågas, at about 130 m elevation, in moist birch forest on a steep east-facing slope. Holtan-Hartwig reported the species from Oppland, Sør-Trøndelag, and Finnmark in Norway, and from three localities in Alaska.[2]
In broader molecular phylogenies of Peltigera, P. latiloba is placed in section Chloropeltigera, a trimembered lineage that is closely allied to section Peltidea (the P. aphthosa group).[4] A multilocus phylogenetic study of section Chloropeltigera recovered P. latiloba as a distinct lineage nested within P. leucophlebia sensu lato, indicating that species limits in this group are complex. Some delimitation analyses in the same study suggested that P. latiloba itself might include more than one lineage, but the authors treated it as a single species pending broader sampling and clearer diagnostic characters. The study also found that species in section Chloropeltigera associate with multiple Nostoc lineages and with two species of the green algal photobiont Coccomyxa, consistent with comparatively broad partner choice within this section.[5]