Lecanora is a genus of lichen commonly called rim lichens.[1]: 279 [2] Lichens in the genus Squamarina are also called rim lichens. Members of the genus have roughly circular fruiting discs (apothecia) with rims that have photosynthetic tissue similar to that of the nonfruiting part of the lichen body (thallus).[1] Other lichens with apothecia having margins made of thallus-like tissue are called lecanorine.[1]

Lecanora
Lecanora muralis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Lecanorales
Family: Lecanoraceae
Genus: Lecanora
Ach. (1809)
Type species
Lecanora subfusca
(L.) Ach. (1810)
Diversity
about 500 species

It is in the family Lecanoraceae in the suborder Lecanorineae.[3][4]

Description

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Lecanora has a crustose thallus, trebouxioid photobiont, colourless ascospores and crystals in the amphothecium.[5]: 680 

Swiss lichenologist Rosmarie Honegger used electron microscopy in the late 1970s to investigate ascus structure in several major groups of lichen-forming fungi. She defined the Lecanora-type ascus as one characterized by several distinctive features: (1) a non-amyloid, clear ascus wall that is encased in an amyloid outer layer often described as a fuzzy coat; (2) an amyloid dome filled with granular inclusions set within a clear matrix; (3) a clear central layer inside the dome; and (4) a method of opening, or dehiscence, that is rostrate (resembling the shape of a bird's beak – the ascus has a pointed or protruding tip from which the spores are released).[6]

Species

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A 2008 estimate placed over 550 species in the genus. As of July 2022, Index Fungorum lists 245 species in the genus.
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References

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  1. ^ a b c Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-19500-2
  2. ^ USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Name Search
  3. ^ Rim Lichen (Squamarina), Encyclopedia of Life
  4. ^ C.J. Alexopolous, Charles W. Mims, M. Blackwell, Introductory Mycology, 4th ed. (John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2004) ISBN 0-471-52229-5
  5. ^ FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND: Lichens including lichen-forming and licheniculous fungi, Revised second edition, Volume one, D. J. Galloway, Manaaki Whenua Press, Landcare Research 2007, ISBN 978-0-478-09376-6
  6. ^ Honegger, R. (1978). "The ascus apex in lichenized fungi I. The Lecanora-, Peltigera- and Teloschistes-types" (PDF). The Lichenologist. 10 (1): 47–67. doi:10.1017/s0024282978000079. S2CID 84629945.
  7. ^ Mycobank: Lecanora conizaeoides