Plants of the Gila Wilderness

Presented in Association with the
Western New Mexico University Department of Natural Sciences

Amandinea punctata (Hoffm.) Coppins & Scheid.
Tiny Button Lichen

Amandinea punctata is a thin crustose lichen found on tree trunks and limbs. The thallous is white with numerous small black lecideine apothecia. The apothecia have a black rim (exciple) and are disc shaped when young, then become nearly spherical as they age and lose the obvious rim. The rim of the apothecium is not made up of thallus, and thus does not contain algae. The most obvious character under the microscope is seen in cross section of an apothecium-- the spores are two-celled, elliptic, and become brown as they mature making the asci much easier to see than usual. This specimen was found on dead lower limbs of a Douglas Fir at middle elevation.
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Amandinea punctata, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, closeup of thallus and apothecia, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, closeup of thallus and apothecia, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, closeup of thallus and apothecia, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, photomicrograph of lecideine apothecium, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, photomicrograph of lecideine apothecium, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, photomicrograph of asci, ascospores and paraphyses, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, photomicrograph of asci, ascospores and paraphyses, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019



Amandinea punctata, photomicrograph of photobiont (Trebouxia per Brodo et al.), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Gila NF, McMillan Cmpgd trail, November 13, 2019


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