''Chaenothecopsis penningtonensis'' is a resinicolous fungus found on ''

Picea mariana ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the Pinaceae, pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 Canadian Arctic Lands, territories. It is the official tree of Newfo ...

'' bark flakes. Found in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, ''Chaenothecopsis penningtonensis'' is newly introduced in 2020 by ecologists Otto Gockman and Steven Selva. As of 2022, this species have also been observed in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada by ecologist Jose Maloles.

Description

''Chaenothecopsis penningtonensis'' sits atop resin on the lower surface of ''

'' bark flakes. It is dark brown to black in color,

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 ...

absent, and has a very short

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 ...

. Along with ''C. resinicola'', ''C. penningtonesis'' are the only resinicolous species of ''Chaenothecopsis'' found in North America with non-

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

spores and short apothecia and asci.

Habitat and Geography

''Chaenothecopsis penningtonensis'' reside in temperate peatlands within temperate boreal forests where long, cold and dry winters and short, warm and moist summers occur.

Etymology

The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

, ''penningtonensis'', is derived from the location at which this species was discovered, at the Pennington Bog Scientific and Natural Area of Pennington, Minnesota.

References

Eurotiomycetes Fungi described in 2020 Fungi of the United States Fungi of Canada Fungus species {{Eurotiomycetes-stub