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Strangospora spp.
Family: Lecanorales, genera incertae sedis
Life habit: lichenized Thallus: absent or thin and poorly developed photobiont: primary one a chlorococcoid green alga, secondary one absent Apothecia: biatorine, convex, colorless, scarlet, orange, or dark brown or black, usually epruinose true exciple: usually very thin to almost absent epihymenium: hyaline to yellow or orange or blue nium: variously colored to hyaline; paraphyses: branched and ±anastomosed, in a gelatinous matrix but with free apices asci: clavate, with a strongly thickened, I+ blue wall, particularly at the apex, without gelatinous outer layer, and a strongly I+ blue apical dome ascospores: colorless, simple, mainly globose, 1.5-5 µm in diam.; wall: thin, smooth Conidiomata: pycnidial, immersed, small, globose, colorless to pale brown, not found in Sonoran specimens conidia: ellipsoid Secondary metabolites: pigments present in some species, especially in the apothecia Geography: Asia, Europe, and North America Substrate: on bark or wood, sometimes overgrowing bryophytes. Notes: Strangospora is distinguished from Acarospora and Biatorella by its I+blue tholus. Zahlbruckner included Strangospora in Biatorella, but the asci of Biatorella s. str. has an I+ blue gelatinous outer layer and I- (to faintly I+ blue) tholus. The latter genus is not known from Sonoran area, though B. hemisphaerica Anzi should be sought in high elevation, montane habitats on soil with mosses in shady crevices.
Species within Sonoran Desert Lichens  
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