''Teloschistes capensis'', commonly known as the Cape hair lichen, is a species of

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

in the family

Teloschistaceae The Teloschistaceae are a large family (biology), family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class (taxonomy), class Lecanoromycetes in the division (botany), division Ascomycota. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, althoug ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Atlantic coast in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Taxonomy

The lichen was first

scientifically 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 diffe ...

in 1781 by

Carl Linnaeus the Younger Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Carolus Linnaeus the Younger, Carl von Linné den yngre ( Swedish; abbreviated Carl von Linné d. y.), or ''Linnaeus filius'' (Latin for ''Linnaeus the son''; abbreviated L.fil. (outdated) or L.f. (modern) as a botani ...

Johannes Müller Argoviensis Johann Müller (9 May 1828 – 28 January 1896) was a Swiss botanist who was a specialist in lichens. He published under the name Johannes Müller Argoviensis to distinguish himself from other naturalists with similar names. Biography Müller ...

transferred the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

to the genus '' Teloschistes'' in 1911.

Description

The ''Teloschistes capensis'' is a type of , or shrubby, lichen, typically growing upright and ranging from 3 to 8 cm in height. Its densely branched structure features main branches about 0.5 mm in diameter, which can be either circular or angularly rounded in cross-section. These main branches are sometimes marked by longitudinal stripes or grooves and have a texture that ranges from dull and smooth to slightly hairy. Their colour varies from orange to yellow or greyish. This species does not produce

soralia Soredia are common reproductive structures of lichens. Lichens reproduce asexually by employing simple fragmentation and production of soredia and isidia. Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungal hyphae wrapped around cyanobacteria or g ...

isidia An isidium (plural: isidia) is a tiny, wart- or finger-like outgrowth on the thallus surface of certain lichen species. It is one of two principal types of vegetative reproduction, vegetative reproductive structures in lichens, the other being ...

, which are

propagule In biology, a propagule is any material that functions in propagating an organism to the next stage in its life cycle, such as by dispersal. The propagule is usually distinct in form from the parent organism. Propagules are produced by organisms ...

s related to reproduction and dispersion in lichens. The thinner secondary of ''Teloschistes capensis'' share the same colour palette but end in , or small fibres, that are 1 to 2 mm long and coloured orange to yellow-grey. The lichen frequently bears

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 the lichen's spore-producing structures. These appear on the sides or near the ends of the branches and are stalkless, measuring 1 to 2 mm across. In their early stages, these apothecia look like small, orange-red bumps and develop into either flat or slightly concave . The discs are orange-red, typically darker than the rest of the thallus, and are surrounded by a prominent margin covered with numerous long, yellow to orange fibrils. Inside these apothecia, the asci (spore-producing cells) are club-shaped, measuring 48–52 by 12–14

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 ...

. The , which are the reproductive cells produced by the asci, are two-celled, and their shape ranges from

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 almost spindle-like. These spores measure between 8.5 and 14 μm in width and 45.5 μm in length.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10692557 Teloschistales Lichen species Lichens described in 1781 Lichens of Southern Africa