''Coenogonium atherospermatis'' is a species of

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 ...

in the family Coenogoniaceae. Found in

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, it was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

as a new species in 2018 by lichenologists

Gintaras Kantvilas Gintaras Kantvilas (born 1956) is an Australian lichenologist, who earned his Ph.D. in 1985 from the University of Tasmania with a thesis entitled ''Studies on Tasmanian rainforest lichens''. He has authored over 432 species names, and 167 gene ...

, Eimy Rivas Plata, and

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist, known for his extensive research on foliicolous lichens (lichens that live on leaves) and his significant contributions to the taxonomy, ecology, and biodiversity of fungi and lichens. He e ...

. 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 ...

was collected by the first author near Little Fisher River at an altitude of , where it was found in a cool temperate

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

growing on ''

Atherosperma moschatum ''Atherosperma moschatum'', commonly known as black sassafras, Australian sassafras, southern sassafras, native sassafras or Tasmanian sassafras, is a flowering plant in the family Atherospermataceae and the only species in the genus ''Atherospe ...

''. It is locally abundant at this location, where it usually occurs at elevations of more than about . 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) ...

refers to the genus of the preferred host tree. Within Tasmanian rainforest vegetation, '' Atherosperma'' is known for harbouring "a distinctive suite of lichens", including ''C. atherospermatis''.

Description

''Coenogonium atherospermatis'' has a crusty, pale greenish to yellowish-grey

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 forms irregular patches up to wide. It does not have a . The cells are more or less spherical, broadly

ellipsoid An ellipsoid is a surface that can be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional Scaling (geometry), scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a Surface (mathemat ...

to oblong, and occur in clumps or short chains. The

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 ...

, or fruiting bodies, are and flat, with a yellowish-beige that is usually plane but may be slightly convex when old. The margin is cream, smooth, and glossy. The is 50–80

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 ...

thick, while the is colorless to pale yellowish and measures 15–100 μm thick in the upper part. The

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in oth ...

is 45–55 μm thick and contains asci and

paraphyses Paraphyses are erect sterile filament-like support structures occurring among the reproductive apparatuses of fungi, ferns, bryophytes and some thallophytes. The singular form of the word is paraphysis. In certain fungi, they are part of the f ...

. The

ascospore In fungi, an ascospore is the sexual spore formed inside an ascus—the sac-like cell that defines the division Ascomycota, the largest and most diverse Division (botany), division of fungi. After two parental cell nucleus, nuclei fuse, the ascu ...

s are irregularly , measuring 6.0–8.5 by 2.5–3 μm. were not found in this lichen.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q105492670 Gyalectales Lichen species Lichens described in 2018 Lichens of Australia Taxa named by Gintaras Kantvilas Taxa named by Robert Lücking