''Xanthocarpia'' 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 ...

of mostly

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

s 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 has 12 species with a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally

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 ...

in 1859 by

Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo (13 May 1824 – 25 May 1860) was an Italian paleobotanist and lichenologist. He was born in Tregnago in the Province of Verona and took a great interest in botany as a young man. Massalongo joined the faculty of med ...

and

Giuseppe De Notaris Giuseppe De Notaris (18 April 1805 – 22 January 1877) was an Italian botanist generally known for his work with cryptogams native to Italy. Biography Born 18 April 1805, in Milan, he studied medicine at the University of Pavia, obtaining his ...

, with '' Xanthocarpia ochracea'' as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. This species has tetralocular

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 (i.e. divided into 4 chambers).

Description

''Xanthocarpia'' has 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 is either crust-like (

crustose Crustose is a Habit (biology), habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the Substrate (biology), substrates at all poin ...

) or like a shield or plate attached on the lower surface at a single central point (peltate). In some cases, the thallus is absent; in all cases, a

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 ...

is absent. The lichen contains

anthraquinone Anthraquinone, also called anthracenedione or dioxoanthracene, is an aromatic hydrocarbon, aromatic organic compound with formula . Several isomers exist but these terms usually refer to 9,10-anthraquinone (IUPAC: 9,10-dioxoanthracene) wherein th ...

s compounds. ''Xanthocarpia'' species often have

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 coloured yellow to orange. These apothecia are zeorine, meaning that the proper exciple (the ring-shaped layer surrounding 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 enclosed in the thalline exciple.

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 ...

can be present or absent; the

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 ...

have a

bacilliform Bacterial cellular morphologies are the shapes that are characteristic of various types of bacteria and often key to their identification. Their direct examination under a light microscope enables the classification of these bacteria (and archaea ...

to narrowly

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 ...

shape.

Species

Most ''Flavoplaca'' species occur in the Northern Hemisphere. Several are found in southeastern Europe, with a collective distribution extending from the Mediterranean to the Arctic. ,

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 12 species of ''Xanthocarpia'': Xanthocarpia feracissima 111755755

*'' Xanthocarpia aquensis'' *'' Xanthocarpia borysthenica'' *'' Xanthocarpia crenulatella'' *'' Xanthocarpia diffusa'' *'' Xanthocarpia epigaea'' *'' Xanthocarpia erichansenii'' *'' Xanthocarpia feracissima'' *'' Xanthocarpia ferrarii'' *'' Xanthocarpia interfulgens'' *'' Xanthocarpia jerramungupensis'' *'' Xanthocarpia marmorata'' *'' Xanthocarpia tominii''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27440394 Teloschistales Teloschistales genera Taxa described in 1853 Taxa named by Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo Taxa named by Giuseppe De Notaris Lichen genera