Synarthonia stigmatidialis
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| Synarthonia stigmatidialis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Arthoniomycetes |
| Order: | Arthoniales |
| Family: | incertae sedis |
| Genus: | Synarthonia |
| Species: | S. stigmatidialis |
| Binomial name | |
| Synarthonia stigmatidialis Müll.-Arg. (1895) | |
Synarthonia stigmatidialis is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling) crustose lichen of uncertain familial classification in the order Arthoniales. Originally described from a single collection in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí in 1895, this lichen remains known only from its type locality, making it one of the rarest members of its genus. The species is distinguished by its whitish crusty growth on bark and its clustered fruiting structures that are dusted with a delicate white powder, as well as its distinctive ascospores that develop enlarged cells at their tip and turn pale brown at maturity.
Synarthonia stigmatidialis was described by Johannes Müller Argoviensis in 1895. He noted that, while it can resemble Stigmatidium at first glance, its tightly packed, stromatic fruiting patches and multi-septate, "macrocephalous" spores with an enlarged apical cell place it in Synarthonia rather than that genus.[1] The type was collected in Mexico (San Luis Potosí) by J.M. Eckfeldt (specimen no. 245, housed in G, the herbarium of the Geneva Botanical Garden). Subsequent re-examination expanded the original spore size range and, for the first time in this species, confirmed iodine reactions and spot test results, providing firmer characters for separating it from related taxa. Within Synarthonia, species characteristically develop fruiting bodies that begin singly but coalesce into clustered "synascomata" set in a shallow pad of fungal tissue (a pseudostroma) with a thin white margin—features that fit S. stigmatidialis.[2]