Original paper
A Monograph of the Fungal Genus Ahlesia Fuck
Salisbury, G. A.
Nova Hedwigia Band 25 Heft 3-4 (1974), p. 693 - 698
6 references
published: Nov 30, 1974
DOI: 10.1127/nova.hedwigia/25/1974/693
ArtNo. ESP050002503011, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
When Fuckel erected Ahlesia he classified it with the Patellariaceae. Rehm (1891) included it in the genus Thelocarpon Nyl. which he referred to the Hypocreaceae. Magnusson (1935a, b) transferred Ahlesia to the Acarosporaceae, and Thelocarpon to the Thelocarpaceae next to Acarosporaceae. If the lichens are incorporated in the fungi, Ahlesia and Thelocarpon ought to be classified together, but the ascocarp of Ahlesia is an apothecium whereas that of Thelocarpon appears to be a perithecium. Thus, Richardson (1970: 356) considered that the perithecia of Thelocarpon were “modified apothecia”, R. Santesson (in litt.) that they were actually “apothecia”. Here the terms ‘apothecium’ and ‘perithecium ’ are used in a strictly morphic sense. Ahlesia is characterized by its apothecium and non-persistent asci, and Thelocarpon by its perithecium and peculiar flask-shaped asci persisting a long time after the spores are shed. In both genera, yellow pigments of pulvic acid and derivatives (Santesson, J., 1967) are produced from the ends of the hyphae forming the excipulum or perithecial wall, but in Ahlesia they are also produced from the ends of the paraphyses. Ahlesia seems to have a distributional pattern similar to that of Thelocarpon, being widespread in temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere but absent from the tropics and southern hemisphere.
Keywords
fungi;ascocarp;apothecium;perithecium;genera;asci;hyphae;derivatives; paraphyses