''Anaptychia'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

-forming

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the family

Physciaceae The Physciaceae are a family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. A 2016 estimate placed 19 genera and 601 species in the family. Description The Physiaceae family includes various ...

. ''Anaptychia'' species are

foliose A foliose lichen is a lichen with flat, leaf-like , which are generally not firmly bonded to the substrate on which it grows. It is one of the three most common lichen growth forms, growth forms of lichens. It typically has distinct upper and lo ...

(leafy) to

fruticose A fruticose lichen is a form of lichen fungi that is characterized by a coral-like shrubby or bushy lichen growth forms, growth structure. It is formed from a symbiotic relationship of a photobiont such as green algae or less commonly cyanobacteri ...

(bushy) lichens. They have brown, thin-walled spores with a single

septum In biology, a septum (Latin language, Latin for ''something that encloses''; septa) is a wall, dividing a Body cavity, cavity or structure into smaller ones. A cavity or structure divided in this way may be referred to as septate. Examples Hum ...

, and a upper .

Taxonomy

The genus was

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

by German lichenologist

Gustav Wilhelm Körber Gustav Wilhelm Körber (10 January 1817, Jelenia Góra, Hirschberg – 27 January 1885, Breslau) was a Silesian-German lichenologist and a professor at the University of Wrocław, University of Breslau. He specialized in the flora of Central Europ ...

in his 1848 work ''Grundriss der Kryptogamen-Kunde''. In his 1962

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

on the genus, Syo Kurokawa included 88 species. A few years later,

Josef Poelt Josef Poelt was a botanist, bryologist and lichenologist. He held the chair in Systematic Botany and Plant Geography at the Free University of Berlin (1965 - 1972) and then was head of the Botanical Institute and Botanical Garden of Graz Universi ...

thought the genus should be divided into two genera – ''Anaptychia'' and ''

Heterodermia ''Heterodermia'' is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Physciaceae. The genus has a widespread distribution, especially in tropical regions, and contains about 80 species. Description ''Heterodermia'' are subterranean or almost upright le ...

'' – based largely on differences in spore structure. William Culberson supported this opinion, emphasizing the presence of distinct chemical characteristics between the two groups. Some species of ''Anaptychia'' were transferred to the genus '' Kurokawia'', newly circumscribed in 2021. Other advancements in the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

of ''Anaptychia'' have clarified the classification within

section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

''Protoanaptychia'', a group originally proposed by

, primarily found in arid and semi-arid regions of the Northern Hemisphere. This section includes species such as ''A. desertorum'', ''A. elbursiana'', ''A. mereschkowskii'', and ''A. roemeri'', which are morphologically distinct from those found in moist

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

regions. The nomenclature and species identification within this section, particularly concerning ''A. desertorum'' and ''A. mereschkowskii'', is now better understood. Kulakov (2003) rectified a long-standing confusion by recognising that the type specimen of ''Anaptychia desertorum'', previously thought to be , is actually . He reinstated the name ''A. mereschkowskii'' for the sorediate species formerly identified as ''A. desertorum''. Urbanavichus (2008) further resolved the taxonomy by associating the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

of ''A. desertorum'' with a fertile species, historically referred to as ''A. ulothricoides'', granting ''A. desertorum'' nomenclatural priority. This clarification is relevant to North American literature, where the

orthographic variant In biology, within the science of scientific nomenclature, i.e. the naming of organisms, an orthographical variant (abbreviated orth. var.) in botany or an orthographic error in zoology, is a spelling mistake, typing mistake or writing mistake wit ...

''A. ulotrichoides'' has been mistakenly applied to a different species that reproduces primarily through fragmentation. These taxonomic updates, while significant, have been underreported in North American literature, possibly due to language barriers, as some of the research was published in Russian.

Description

''Anaptychia'' lichens have a

thallus Thallus (: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. A thallus usually names the entir ...

that ranges from leaf-like (

) to slightly shrubby (somewhat

) in nature. These can be of small to medium size, with a degree of attachment that ranges from moderate to quite loose. In terms of colouration, they vary from a muted white or grey to a darker brown shade. The upper surface of the thallus can display a variety of features. In some species, it remains completely smooth, while others might have a light dusting known as . Still, others might have a soft covering of fine, cortex-derived hairs or larger tapering hairs, especially closer to the edges of the lobes. There might also be the presence of marginal hair-like projections, referred to as . The lichen's lower surface can be of a light hue which may darken over time, and it can range from having a sparse to a dense presence of root-like structures known as

rhizine In lichens, rhizines are multicellular root-like structures arising mainly from the lower surface. A lichen with rhizines is termed rhizinate, while a lichen lacking rhizines is termed erhizinate. Rhizines serve only to anchor the lichen to their s ...

s. These rhizines might be of a (unbranched) form, split into a few branches, or show intricate branching. The uppermost protective layer, or

cortex Cortex or cortical may refer to: Biology * Cortex (anatomy), the outermost layer of an organ ** Cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the vertebrate cerebrum, part of which is the ''forebrain'' *** Motor cortex, the regions of the cerebral cortex i ...

, displays a patterned cellular arrangement of outward-facing, thick-walled hyphae. In contrast, the lower cortex can either be absent or display a similar arrangement, but it might sometimes appear less structured and not distinctly separate from the inner fleshy layer, known as the

medulla Medulla (Latin for "marrow") or medullary may refer to: Science * Medulla oblongata, a part of the brain stem * Renal medulla, a part of the kidney * Adrenal medulla, a part of the adrenal gland * Medulla of ovary, a stroma in the center of the ...

. ''Anaptychia'' bears reproductive structures known as

apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. As ...

, which are encircled by a thallus-derived boundary. Inside these apothecia, there are sac-like structures that typically contain eight spores. These spores resemble those of the ''

Physconia ''Physconia'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Physciaceae. It comprises 13 species. The genus was established in 1965 by the lichenologist Josef Poelt and is characterized by leaf-like growth forms with typically less than 3 ...

'' type, are brown, and are partitioned once, measuring in the range of 25–52

μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...

in length and 13–24 μm in width. Another kind of reproductive structure, the

pycnidia A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or inve ...

, appear on the thallus surface and are darkened and sunken. The pycnidia contain spore-like

conidia A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also ...

that are rod-shaped to slightly cylindrical, with sizes ranging between 3.5–6 μm in length and up to 6.1 μm in width.

Species

Species Fungorum ''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (Binomial nomenclature, scientific names) in the fungus Kingdom (biology), kingdom. As of 2015, the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partn ...

accepts five species of ''Anaptychia''. The fungal classification compilation "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa – 2021" suggests there are 15 species in the genus. * '' Anaptychia ciliaris'' * '' Anaptychia crinalis'' * '' Anaptychia desertorum'' * '' Anaptychia elbursiana'' * '' Anaptychia ethiopica'' * '' Anaptychia isidiza'' * '' Anaptychia nevadensis'' – western North America * '' Anaptychia roemeri'' * '' Anaptychia roemerioides'' – western North America

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4751597 Caliciales Lichen genera Caliciales genera Taxa described in 1848 Taxa named by Gustav Wilhelm Körber