The Icmadophilaceae are a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Pertusariales. The family was circumscribed in 1993 by the mycologist Dagmar Treibel.[1] It contains 9 genera and 35 species.[2]
Description
Icmadophilaceae species are usually crust-like to shrub-like in form. Their photobiuont partner is chlorococcoid, which is crucial for their survival. Their apothecia (fruiiting bodies) are typically biatorine in form, meaning they have a light-coloured (not carbonised) margin, and are often pink in colour. Some may have stalk-like structures, referred to as pseudopodetia.[3]
Within these reproductive structures, Icmadophilaceae lichens have unbranched filaments called paraphyses, which are amyloid. The asci, or spore sacs, in these lichens are thin-walled and lack a thickened top section (apical tholus) but have a thin, amyloid cap at their tips. They are typically cylindrical in shape.[3]
Each ascus typically contains eight spores. These spores come in various shapes – ellipsoid, oblong, fusiform (spindle-shaped), to cutriform (knife-shaped) – and are clear (hyaline) and non-amyloid. In addition to spore reproduction, Icmadophilaceae lichens can also reproduce asexually through structures called pycnidia, which produce rod-shaped (bacillar), hyaline conidia (asexual spores).[3]
^Rambold, G.; Triebel, D.; Hertel, H. (1993). "Icmadophilaceae, a new family in the Leotiales". Phytochemistry and Chemotaxonomy of Lichenized Ascomycetes – A Festschrift in Honour of Siegfried Huneck. Bibliotheca Lichenologica. Vol. 53. Berlin/Stuttgart: J. Cramer. pp. 217–240.
^Trevisan, V. (1852). "Saggio di una classazione naturale dei Licheni. – Memoria I. Sulla tribu delle Patellariee" [Essay on a natural classification of Lichens. – Memoir I. On the tribe of Patellariae]. Revista Periodica dei Lavori della Imperiale Regia Accademia di Padova (in Italian). 1 (3): 237–271.
^ abLudwig, Lars R.; Kantvilas, Gintaras; Nilsen, Andy R.; Orlovich, David A.; Ohmura, Yoshihito; Summerfield, Tina C.; Wilk, Karina; Lord, Janice M. (2020). "A molecular-genetic reassessment of the circumscription of the lichen genus Icmadophila". The Lichenologist. 52 (3): 213–220. doi:10.1017/S0024282920000122.
^Fries, E.M. (1831). Lichenographia Europaea Reformata [Revised European Lichenography] (in Latin). pp. 7, 406.
^Kantvilas, Gintaras; Elix, John A.; James, Peter W. (1992). "Siphulella, a new lichen genus from southwest Tasmania". The Bryologist. 95 (2): 186–191. doi:10.2307/3243434. JSTOR3243434.