Teloschistes Velifer
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''Teloschistes velifer'' is a species of
corticolous This glossary of mycology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to mycology, the study of fungi. Terms in common with other fields, if repeated here, generally focus on their mycology-specific meaning. Related terms can be found ...
(bark-dwelling),
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 occurs in Australia, New Zealand, and South America.


Taxonomy

The lichen was first described scientifically by the Australian minister and lichenologist, Francis Wilson, in 1889. He noted the rare lichen to prefer the bark of small twigs of the plant '' Hymenanthera banksii'', a bush upon which it would often cover an entire side.


Description

The ''Teloschistes velifer'' is characterised by its partially shrubby, upright
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 ...
—this is the body of the lichen—which often forms dense, cushion-like patches approximately 10 mm in diameter. The upper surface of the thallus displays a radiating pattern and consists of elongated, linear , each about 10 mm long and 1–2 mm wide. These lobes are slightly ridged and branch at their ends, featuring yellow, hair-like outgrowths known as that are about 0.5–1.5 mm long. The edges of the lobes often appear hooded and bear fine, greenish to greyish powdery clusters of reproductive cells known as
soredia Soredia are common reproduction, reproductive structures of lichens. Lichens asexual reproduction, reproduce asexually by employing simple fragmentation and production of soredia and isidia. Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungus, fung ...
, which are exposed on the non-cortical underside of the lobes. The upper side of the ''Teloschistes velifer'' is an orange-yellow colour, and when treated with potassium hydroxide (K), it turns purple. The underside is grey to whitish and mirrors the slight ridging observed on the upper side. The reproductive structures, or
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 ...
, are about 1–3 mm in diameter and initially form broadly directly attached to the upper surface of the lobes, surrounded by conspicuous curved edges made of the same material as the thallus. Eventually, they appear to be terminal on 1–2 mm tall, ridged stalks and become convex with their margins no longer enclosed by fibrils. The of the apothecia is an orange-red colour with a matte texture. The asci, or spore-producing cells, are club-shaped and measure 50–60 by 12–15 μm. The themselves are two-chambered,
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 ...
, and range from 10 to 16 by 68 μm in size.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21314712 Teloschistales Lichen species Lichens described in 1889 Lichens of Australia Lichens of New Zealand Lichens of South America