Pulchrocladia retipora

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Pulchrocladia retipora
Pulchrocladia retipora 158581993.jpg
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Lecanorales
Family: Cladoniaceae
Genus: Pulchrocladia
Species:
P. retipora
Binomial name
Pulchrocladia retipora
(Labill.) S.Stenroos, Pino-Bodas & Ahti (2018)
Synonyms[1]
List
  • Baeomyces reteporus Labill. (1806)
  • Lichen retiporus (Labill.) DC. (1813)
  • Cenomyce retipora (Labill.) Ach. (1814)
  • Pycnothelia retipora (Labill.) Fée (1825)
  • Cladonia retipora (Labill.) Fr. (1826)
  • Cladina retipora (Labill.) Nyl. (1868)
  • Cladia retipora (Labill.) Nyl. (1876)
  • Clathrina retipora (Labill.) Müll.Arg. (1883)

Pulchrocladia retipora, most commonly known as the coral lichen, is a species of fruticose lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It occurs in Australasia and New Caledonia where it grows in coastal and alpine heathlands. The lichen features coral-like branches and subbranches with numerous netlike perforations. It is known by multiple names, with some sources referring to it by its synonym Cladia retipora, or the common name lace lichen.

The lichen was first scientifically collected by Jacques Labillardière on board the Bruni d'Entrecasteaux expeditions in 1792. Labillardière had erroneously classified it as an alga rather than a lichen. Pulchrocladia retipora was the first Australian lichen to be described in a scientific publication.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by Jacques Labillardière in 1806, as Baeomyces reteporus. The type specimen was collected from Tasmania.[2] This collection was made as part of the botanical collections he made during his 1791 voyage to the South Seas with French explorer Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in an unsuccessful search for Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse. He had first collected the lichen in 1792, and published the description in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen, erroneously describing the lichen as an alga.[3] According to Rex Filson, the lichen is the first that was described for Australia.[4]

In its taxonomic history, the taxon has been shuffled to several genera, some of which are no longer used or have been synonymized with other genera.[1] These include Cenomyce (Acharius, 1814), Pycnothelia (Fée, 1825),[5] Cladonia (Fries, 1826), Cladina (Nylander, 1868), Cladia (Nylander, 1876),[6] and Clathrina (Johann Müller, 1883).[7] It is now the type species of genus Pulchrocladia, which was circumscribed in 2018 by Soili Stenroos, Raquel Pino-Bodas, Helge Thorsten Lumbsch, and Teuvo Ahti following a large-scale molecular phylogenetic analysis of the family Cladoniaceae.[8]

It is commonly known as the coral lichen,[9] or the lace lichen.[10]

Description

Closeup of Pulchrocladia retipora

The pseudopodetia are up to 5 cm (2 in) tall, white to pale grey in colour, sometimes tinged pinkish or yellowing or superficially blackening at tips. They are rigid when dry, irregularly or dichoromously branched, forming cushiony clumps. The wall is highly perforated, with large, round to ellipsoidal holes. The surface of the pseudopodetia continuously corticate and lacking soredia. The inner medulla is made of twisted strands of hyphae. The conidiomata are terminal, and covered with translucent slime. The colour of the hymenium ranges from dark reddish-brown to black.[8] Specimens collected in Australia tend to have a brownish tinge, while New Zealand specimens range from pure white to grey, to grayish-green, or slightly yellowish.[11] The photobiont partner is green algae from the Trebouxia. Occasionally, free-living algae become trapped in the irregularly intertwined hyphae of the medulla.[12]

Usnic acid and atranorin are the major secondary compounds present in Pulchrocladia retipora. Other compounds occurring in lesser quantity, and detectable using thin-layer chromatography, include protolichesterinic and ursolic acids,[12] and, often also rangiformic acid and norrangiformic acids.[8] It is usnic acid that is thought to be responsible for the antimicrobial, antiviral and cytotoxic biological activity of Pulchrocladia retipora lichen extracts tested in in vitro experiments.[13]

Pulchrocladia retipora grows in cushion-like growths ranging in diameter from 10 centimetres (3.9 in) to 100 centimetres (39 in).[9] William Martin remarked finding square metre-sized cushions in the area of Lewis Pass in Canterbury, New Zealand. A separate description describes cushions the size of a football in Australia's Grampians National Park. According to Martin, coral lichen forming massive cushion growths only occur in subalpine zones, with lowland forms being only 5–10 centimetres (2.0–3.9 in) in size.[14]

Habitat and distribution

Pulchrocladia retipora in its native habitat

Pulchrocladia retipora is widely distributed in Australasia. In Australia, it has been recorded from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Tasmania. In New Zealand, it is known from both the North and South Islands as well as Antipodes Island, Auckland Islands, Campbell Island, and Chatham Islands. In the Pacific, it occurs in New Caledonia.[8]

The coral lichen is particularly common in subalpine peat bogs, it is often found in association with the lichens Cladonia confusa, Rexiella sullivani, and Stereocaulon ramulosum. It is found on peaty soils, found among tussocks or in heaths comprising Dracophyllum and Leptospermum, at the margins of Nothofagus forests, in fellfield, or rarely on surfaces such as rocks, logs, and sand dunes.[9] In the moorlands of the Meredith Range area in Tasmania, it is found in "better drained, elevated sites, such as near rotting, dead buttongrass hummocks."[15]

The lichen replicates vegetatively when new podetia grow from fragments of old podetia.[11] It has highly variable growth rates, ranging from less than 1 mm per year to up to a few centimetres per year.[16] It has been noted to grow in clusters, sometimes up a metre in diameter. The unique morphology of the lichen helps it to survive the exposed heaths it inhabits, as the coral structure increases gas exchange, moderates temperature extremes, and maximises light and water access.[12]

Uses and research

The complex net-like structures of Pulchrocladia retipora are known as fenestrations.[12] The appearance of the lichen has been described as "of considerable beauty resembling lace or coral". As a result, it has found use in floral decoration and architectural design.[9]

Resynthesis

The Pulchrocladia retipora lichen thallus has been successfully resynthesized from isolated mycobiont and photobiont under laboratory conditions. In these experiments, lichen primordia, consisting of fungal mycelia and enclosed algae, appear after about 1 month. After 4 months, the cultures form minute scales that are the starting units for the development of the complex hyphal network that becomes the thallus. Later, the scales differentiate into columns that grow together vertically to form a thin network, and more hyphae join and fuse together to strengthen and stabilize the network. Eventually, algae colonise the network prior to further development of the inner medulla and connecting of the fenestrations. In the laboratory, the entire process takes about 2 years.[12]

Biomonitoring

The Baseline Air Pollution Station in Tasmania (part of the World Meteorological Organization-Global Atmosphere Watch network) has used Pulchrocladia retipora has used as a bioindicator to identify how atmospheric nitrogen and sulphur deposition in Tasmania is affected by human pollution.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "Synonymy: Pulchrocladia retipora (Labill.) S. Stenroos, Pino-Bodas & Ahti, in Stenroos, Pino-Bodas, Hyvönen, Lumbsch & Ahti, Cladistics: 10.1111/cla.12363, 30 (2018)". Species Fungorum. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  2. ^ Labillardière, JJ. (1806). Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen (in Latin). Vol. 2. Paris: Ex typographia Dominæ Huzard. p. 110.
  3. ^ "Coral lichen - a scientific first". Shaping Tasmania: a journey in 100 objects. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  4. ^ Filson, Rex (1976). "Australian lichenology: a brief history" (PDF). Muelleria. 3 (3): 183–190.
  5. ^ Fée, Antoine Laurent Apollinaire (1825). Essai sur les cryptogames des écorces exotiques officinales (in French). Paris: Firmin Didot père et fils. p. xcviii. Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  6. ^ Nylander, W. (1876). "Lichenes rapportes de l'Isle Campbell, par M. Filhol". Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in Latin). 83: 87–90.
  7. ^ Müller, J. (1883). "Lichenologische Beiträge XVII". Flora (Regensburg) (in Latin). 66: 75–80. Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  8. ^ a b c d Stenroos, Soili; Pino‐Bodas, Raquel; Hyvönen, Jaakko; Lumbsch, Helge Thorsten; Ahti, Teuvo (2018). "Phylogeny of the family Cladoniaceae (Lecanoromycetes, Ascomycota) based on sequences of multiple loci". Cladistics. 35 (4): 351–384. doi:10.1111/cla.12363. hdl:10261/247495. PMID 34633698. S2CID 92664622.
  9. ^ a b c d Hutchison, Melissa. "Pulchrocladia retipora". New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  10. ^ Wassilieff, Maggy (24 September 2007). "Lichens - Lichens in New Zealand". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. Archived from the original on 8 October 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  11. ^ a b Martin, William (1958). "Notes on Cladonia, subgenus Clathrina". The Bryologist. 61 (1): 78–81. doi:10.2307/3239970. JSTOR 3239970.
  12. ^ a b c d e Stocker-Wörgötter, Elfie; Elix, John A. (2006). "Morphogenetic strategies and induction of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in cultured lichen-forming Ascomycota, as exemplified by Cladia retipora (Labill.) Nyl. and Dactylina arctica (Richards) Nyl" (PDF). Symbiosis. 40: 9–20. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  13. ^ Perry, Nigel B.; Benn, Michael H.; Brennan, Nerida J.; Burgess, Elain J.; Ellis, Gil; Galloway, David J.; Lorimer, Stephen D.; Tangney, Raymond S. (1999). "Antimicrobial, antiviral and cytotoxic activity of New Zealand lichens". The Lichenologist. 31 (6): 627–636. doi:10.1006/lich.1999.0241.
  14. ^ Martin, William (1965). "The lichen genus Cladia". Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 3 (2): 8.
  15. ^ Kantvilas, Gintaras; Jarmin, Jean (March 2011). Lichens of the Meredith Range (Report). Tasmanian Herbarium.
  16. ^ a b Hogan, Chad M.; Proemse, Bernadette C.; Barmuta, Leon A. (2017). "Isotopic fingerprinting of atmospheric nitrogen and sulfur using lichens (Cladia retipora) in Tasmania, Australia". Applied Geochemistry. 84: 126–132. Bibcode:2017ApGC...84..126H. doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2017.06.007.

External links

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