Lecania
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Lecania is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Ramalinaceae.[1] Lecania is widely distributed, especially in temperate regions, and contains about 65 species.[2] These lichens form thin, crusty growths on various surfaces and produce small disc-shaped fruiting bodies that are typically brown to black in colour. Most species reproduce both sexually through spores and asexually through tiny reproductive structures, allowing them to spread effectively in their environments.
Taxonomy
The genus was circumscribed by Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in 1853. He assigned Lecania fuscella as the type species.[3]
Description
Lecania forms a crustose thallus—that is, a thin, paint-like growth tightly attached to the substrate. Depending on the species, this crust may be only a fraction of a millimetre thick or develop into a more robust layer that cracks into tiny plates (Template:Lichengloss) or wart-like bumps. In a few taxa the surface becomes minutely lobed or covered with powdery reproductive tissues such as soralia or tiny grain-like propagules (Template:Lichengloss, Template:Lichengloss) that help the lichen spread vegetatively. Colours range from grey-white and pale yellow to deep brown-black; many specimens acquire a frost-like coating of minute crystals called Template:Lichengloss, and some have a dead, transparent Template:Lichengloss film that gives a slightly glazed look. The upper Template:Lichengloss is built of tightly packed fungal cells, though in some species this layer is so saturated with crystals that its cellular structure is obscured. The photosynthetic partner is always a single-celled green alga of the Template:Lichengloss type, which nestles within the medulla just beneath the cortex.[4]
The sexual fruiting bodies are tiny, stalk-less Template:Lichengloss (apothecia) that appear flat when young but often bulge into low domes with age. Measuring roughly 0.4–0.6 mm across (occasionally up to 1 mm), these discs vary in colour from pale brown through orange to almost black and may also carry a dusting of pruina. They are usually rimmed by a thin band of thallus tissue, though this margin can erode in older specimens. Viewed in section, the hymenium (the fertile layer) is colourless but turns blue when stained with iodine. Slender paraphyses thread through the hymenium; their tips often swell or darken, giving a mottled, "piebald" appearance when the disc is wetted. Each ascus ordinarily houses eight colourless ascospores (occasionally up to sixteen) that are one- to three-septate, though some species may have spores with as many as seven internal walls. Spores are thin-walled, sausage- to spindle-shaped, and longer examples can curve gently. Asexual reproduction is common on bark-dwelling species: flask-shaped pycnidia produce tiny, curved conidia.[4]
Most Lecania species lack distinctive secondary metabolites, but a few contain the lichen substance atranorin or various unidentified terpenes. Pigments within the apothecia sometimes give positive colour reactions with standard chemical spot tests (K or N).[4]
Species
As of June 2025[update]Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accepts 65 species of Lecania.[5]
- Lecania arizonica Template:Au
- Lecania atrynioides Template:Au[6]
- Lecania azorica Template:Au[7]
- Lecania baeomma Template:Au
- Lecania belgica Template:Au[8]
- Lecania brattiae Template:Au
- Lecania caloplacicola Template:Au
- Lecania chalcophila Template:Au
- Lecania chirisanensis Template:Au[9]
- Lecania chlaronoides Template:Au[10]
- Lecania circumpallescens Template:Au
- Lecania coeruleorubella Template:Au
- Lecania coerulescens Template:Au
- Lecania coreana Template:Au[11]
- Lecania croatica Template:Au
- Lecania cuprea Template:Au
- Lecania cyrtella Template:Au
- Lecania cyrtellina Template:Au
- Lecania dubitans Template:Au
- Lecania erysibe Template:Au
- Lecania euphorbiae Template:Au[12]
- Lecania fabacea Template:Au
- Lecania franciscana Template:Au
- Lecania fructigena Template:Au
- Lecania fuscella Template:Au
- Lecania fuscelloides Template:Au
- Lecania glauca Template:Au
- Lecania graminum Template:Au
- Lecania granulata Template:Au[13]
- Lecania heardensis Template:Au[14]
- Lecania hutchinsiae Template:Au
- Lecania hydrophobica Template:Au[15]
- Lecania inundata Template:Au
- Lecania johnstonii Template:Au[14]
- Lecania juniperi Template:Au[16]
- Lecania leprosa Template:Au
- Lecania madida Template:Au
- Lecania makarevicziae Template:Au
- Lecania maritima Template:Au
- Lecania molliuscula Template:Au
- Lecania muelleriana Template:Au
- Lecania naegelii Template:Au
- Lecania nigra Template:Au[16]
- Lecania nylanderiana Template:Au
- Lecania olivacella Template:Au
- Lecania pacifica Template:Au
- Lecania poeltii Template:Au[17]
- Lecania polycarpa Template:Au
- Lecania polycycla Template:Au
- Lecania rabenhorstii Template:Au
- Lecania rinodinoides Template:Au
- Lecania ryaniana Template:Au
- Lecania sanguinolenta Template:Au
- Lecania sessilisoraliata Template:Au[18]
- Lecania sipmanii Template:Au
- Lecania sordida Template:Au
- Lecania spadicea Template:Au
- Lecania suavis Template:Au
- Lecania subfuscula Template:Au
- Lecania sylvestris Template:Au
- Lecania triseptatoides Template:Au
- Lecania turicensis Template:Au
- Lecania vermispora Template:Au[19] – Falkland Islands
References
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- Pages with script errors
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- Ramalinaceae
- Lichen genera
- Lecanorales genera
- Taxa described in 1853
- Taxa named by Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo