Marchandiomyces aurantiacus?

[Steve]

Hi,

I have just looked at this Marchandiomyces type of lichen fungus which was sent to me to by a Sheffield colleague from two sites – one just a mile from the city centre. Both were on Physcia tenella. It is more salmon pink than the Marchandiomyces corallinus which is abundant on Parmelia saxatilis out in the gritstone Peak District. From the internet site below it could be Marchandiomyces aurantiacus, but I don’t know of any site which gives microscopical features of these anamorphic fungi, or whether the microscopy is of any use anyway. The microscopy of the two samples looked identical.

http://lichens.lastdragon.org/lichenicolous/Marchandiomyces_aurantiacus.html

Steve

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[JennyS]

Yes, looks good for M. aurantiacus – much more orange in colour than corallinus. Paranectria oropensis can look a bit similar (and also found on Physcia) but has very distinctive sub-muriform spores with tails

[Steve]

Thanks Jenny,

I’ll pass this on to my colleague and keep a look out for it myself,

Steve

[Chris Yeates]

Your fungus is definitely Marchandiomyces aurantiacus, Steve. When you say:

Steve wrote:

. . . . . It is more salmon pink than the Marchandiomyces corallinus which is abundant on Parmelia saxatilis out in the gritstone Peak District

do you also find Illosporiopsis christiansenii? Which I find to be far more common in gritstone areas (I think Diggleken does as well . . . ). In the field they look very similar even though one is an anamorphic basidio and the other an anamorphic asco. Always worth checking each collection microscopically – very easily distinguished then . . .

cheers

Chris

[Steve]

Hi Chris,

I have found Illosporiopsis christiansenii – but only on Physcia tenella in Notts – yes , the microscopy is distinctive. I’ll have a good look out for it on the gritstone lichens at Longshaw, but haven’t seen anything pink on Physcia so far. The Illosporiopsis christiansenii I found was quite luminous pink. I posted it on WAB with the microscopy – and can’t find my originals apart from the field photo below 😮 .

Steve

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