Vigneronia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Vigneronia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Arthoniomycetes |
| Order: | Arthoniales |
| Family: | Roccellaceae |
| Genus: | Vigneronia Ertz (2014) |
| Type species | |
| Vigneronia spieri (Aptroot & Sparrius) Ertz & Bungartz (2014) | |
| Species | |
|
V. caceresiana | |
Vigneronia is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Roccellaceae.[1] It comprises five species.[2] Vigneronia lichens form thin, smooth crusts on bark or rock and are recognized by their distinctive black, wavy, slit-like fruiting bodies that erupt through the surface. The genus was established in 2014 by Damien Ertz and is named after his wife Nathalie Vigneron, who accompanied him on collecting expeditions in the Caribbean.
The genus was circumscribed in 2014 by Damien Ernst, with Vigneronia spieri assigned as the type species. This species, originally described as Schismatomma spieri from collections made in the Galápagos Islands, has since been recorded from mainland Ecuador and the Antilles (Curaçao). The genus is named after Ernst's wife, Nathalie Vigneron, who accompanied him on collecting trips.[3]
Molecularly, Vigneronia nests deep within the family Roccellaceae. In the Ertz and colleagues cladogram it is sister to the then-newly described Crocellina clade, although that relationship receives only weak statistical support. Morphologically, Vigneronia differs from Schismatomma—to which its type species was once assigned—by lacking a true thalline margin around the lirellae and by having broader, less needle-like spores; it also differs from Crocellina in the absence of a corticate thallus and of the saffron-yellow medullary layer that characterises the latter. These diagnostic traits, together with the distinct molecular signal, underpin its recognition as a separate genus within the family.[3]