Pseudopeltula heppioides
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| Pseudopeltula heppioides | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lichinomycetes |
| Order: | Lichinales |
| Family: | Lichinaceae |
| Genus: | Pseudopeltula |
| Species: | P. heppioides |
| Binomial name | |
| Pseudopeltula heppioides Henssen (1995) | |
Pseudopeltula heppioides is a species of lichen in the family Lichinaceae. It forms small, greenish-olive, shield-shaped scales on volcanic rock. The species is distinguished by its fruiting bodies, in which the spore-producing layer (hymenium) becomes divided into many small compartments as it matures. It is known only from Baja California Sur in northwestern Mexico.
Pseudopeltula heppioides was described as a new species in 1995 by the lichenologist Aino Henssen, in her treatment of the family Gloeoheppiaceae (order Lichinales). In that framework, Pseudopeltula is one of the New World genera, and P. heppioides is the species in the genus characterized by having a hymenium that becomes multiply divided and partitioned into small units, each enclosed by its own excipulum.[1]
Henssen chose the epithet heppioides because the small, peltate thallus resembles lichens in the genus Heppia. She noted that it can look like Heppia adglutinata and could be confused with it, but the internal structure of the thallus, the asci and ascospores, and the early development of the apothecia fit Gloeoheppiaceae (especially Gloeoheppia turgida). The mature apothecia differ from those of G. turgida in that sterile hyphal strands subdivide the hymenium, and the tissue ultimately becomes separated into many small compartments with darkened excipular margins; the ridged disc surface reflects those protruding margins.[1] A 2024 phylogenetic reclassification of the Lichinomycetes did not support recognising a separate family for Gloeoheppia (Gloeoheppiaceae), and instead treated the genus within Lichinaceae.[2]