BOGORIELLA ¹

Gintaras Kantvilas ²

Bogoriella Zahlbr., Annals Cryptog. Exot. 1: 111 (1928).

Type: B. subpersicina Zahlbr. [ = B. decipiens (Müll.Arg.) Aptroot & Lücking

Thallus crustose, ecorticate, sometimes barely lichenised, with or without a prothallus. Photobiont Trentepohlia. Ascomata perithecia, globose to conical, solitary, erumpent to prominent and exposed; perithecial wall black, in section completely carbonised, not differentiated internally. Ostiole apical, rarely lateral. Interascal hyphae richly branched and anastomosed, sometimes inspersed, embedded in a non-amyloid, gelatinous matrix. Asci clavate to fusiform, typically with a distinct “tail” or pedicel, 8-spored, non-amyloid, at maturity lacking an ocular chamber. Ascospores soon grey-brown, fusiform, ellipsoid to oblong, transversely septate or muriform, KI–, with the endospore wall thickened and a gelatinous halo that becomes minutely spinulose with age. Conidiomata pycnidia; conidia fusiform to bacilliform. Chemistry: nil.

A genus of 18, chiefly tropical, corticolous species, segregated from Mycomicrothelia and, in its current circumscription, strongly based on molecular data (Hongsanan et al. 2020). In the Tasmanian flora, it is most closely related to Pseudobogoriella, from which it differs by its larger ascospores (> 20 µm long) which have unevenly thickened, invaginated walls.

Key references: Aptroot & Lücking (2016); Hongsanan et al. (2020).

1 Bogoriella queenslandica (Müll.Arg.) Aptroot & Lücking

Lichenologist 48: 914 (2016); —Microthelia queenslandica Müll.Arg., Rep. Australas. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 6: 455 (1895); Mycomicrothelia queenslandica (Müll.Arg.) Sipman & Aptroot, Lichenologist 37: 309 (2005).

Thallus whitish, to 10–40 µm thick, forming small irrregular patches 10–20 mm wide, sometimes delimited by a black prothallus. Perithecia 0.2–1 mm wide, emergent; wall 30–40 µm thick, opaque reddish brown, unchanged in K; ostiole apical. Interascal hyphae 1–1.5 µm thick, not inspersed. Asci 8-spored, 90–110 × 25–32 µm. Ascospores (30–)31–36.8–45(–48) × 10–12.2–15 µm, fusiform-ellipsoid with rounded apices, transversely 1-septate and constricted at the septum, also often slightly attenuated towards the apices, with the endospore wall thickened, invaginated and sometimes forming pseudosepta; cells ± even sized, or with the proximal one wider and the distal one longer; wall of ± even thickness, or a little thicker at the apices. Pycnidia not seen.

Widespread in the tropics, including mainland Australia, but rare (or overlooked) in Tasmania where it grows on smooth bark in wet forests. This tiny, inconspicuous species can easily be mistaken for a species of Anisomeridium or Arthopyrenia, although the large, 2-celled, grey-brown, spinulose ascospores are very distinctive.

Florentine Bridge, 42°29’S 146°27’E, 360 m. 1968, G.C. Bratt 68/322 (HO); Balts Spur, 43°05’S 147°56’E, 420 m, 1983, G. Kantvilas 148/83 (HO, NY).

References