TYPE. “Polonia merid. occidentalis, montes Tatry, loco dicto Hala Kalatowki, alt. ca. 1200 m, ad Piceas vetustas, 1926 J. Motyka.” (Motyka 1936)
Description.Life form: lichenized fungus.
[Translated and modified from Motyka (1936)]. Thallus pendant, ~ 30 cm long, very thin and entirely filamentous, very soft, grey-green, largely darkened and almost blackening towards the primary branches. Primary branch very thin, about 0.5 mm diam., very broad, generally up to the middle part of the thallus, indistinctly papillate, relatively sparsely branched. Secondary branches almost parallel, capillary, 0.3-0.5 mm diam., very uniform, thicker branches often broken at the joints; joints almost cylindrical; tips only indistinctly constricted, usually not discrete, thinner usually continuous, typically papillate; papillae sometimes even absent but rarely present, irregularly scattered, comparatively large, irregularly hemispherical, commonly sorediferous, moreover, at least on part of the branches, distinctly though very obtusely rugose, and minutely foveolate. Lateral branches are irregularly arranged, usually elongated, flabby pendulous, and generally not thinner than the branches; tips are very elongated, lacking papillae. Thallus stratified: cortex ~35 μm thick, pale; photobiont chlorococcoid alga; medulla ~100 μm thick, lax; axis ~300 μm diam, pale. Ascomata not reported; soredia rare, scattered on tubercles.
Chemistry. Medulla K+ reddish; otherwise not reported.
Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on trees.
Distribution. Australia (Tasmania), Europe (Poland), North America; in North Carolina represented by one specimen collected in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.
Note.Usnea capillaris is listed as a synonym of U. dasopoga in a recent European Usnea checklist (Randlane et al. 2009); further study is needed to confirm the synonymy.
Literature
Motyka, J. (1936) Lichenum generis Usnea studium monographicum, pars systematica1(1): 1-304 (original description).
Randlane, T., T. Torra, A. Saag & L Saag (2009) A key to European Usnea species. Bibliotheca Lichenologica100: 419-462.