Buellia gypsyensis is only known from one location and its total Area of Occupancy is 4 km2. Coastal erosion and climatic changes could quickly lead to the decline and extirpation of this species. Therefore, it is listed as Vulnerable under criterion D2.
Assessor/s: Fryday, A.; Reviewer/s: Lendemer, J.; Contributor(s): Allen, J. & Scott, T.; Facilitators(s) and Compiler(s): Allen, J. & Scott, T.
Bibliography:
Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A.W., de la Torre, J. & Scott, B. (2011) Supporting Red List threatassessments with GeoCAT: geospatial conservation assessment tool. In: V. Smith & L. Penev (eds) e-Infrastructures for data publishing in biodiversity science. Zookeys150: 117–126.
Fryday, A. M. (2019) Eleven new species of crustose lichenized fungi from the Falkland Islands (IslasMalvinas). Lichenologist51(3): 235-267.
Fryday, A. M. & Prather, L. A. (2001) The lichen collection of Henry Imshaug at the Michigan StateUniversity Herbarium (MSC). The Bryologist104: 464-467.
Fryday, A. M., Orange, A., Ahti, T., Øvstedal, D. O. & Crabtree, D. E. (2019) Checklist of lichenized andlichenicolous fungi reported from the Falkland Islands. GLALIA8(1): 1-100.
IUCN (2020) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2020-3. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 10 December 2020).
McAdam, J. (2013) The impact of the Falklands War (1982) on the peatland ecosystem of the islands. Landscape Archaeology and Ecology10: 143-162.
Stenroos, S. & Ahti, T. (1992) The lichen family Cladoniaceae in the Falkland Islands. Annales Botanici Fennici29(1): 67-73.
Find out more about the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteriahere.
Lichenologist 51(3): 235–267 (2019).
Buellia gypsyensis Fryday
MycoBank No.: MB 829177
Distinguished from all other species of the genus by a combination of filiform conidia and the thallus containing 5-O-methylhiascic acid as the major substance.
Type: Falkland Islands, East Falkland: Stanley, Gypsy Cove, 51.673920°S, 57.809325°W, 10 m., shaded N-facing rock, 2 November 2015, Fryday 11286 (MSC—holotype).
Description
Thallus areolate, cream or appearing pale yellow, occurring as a closed mosaic of thalli separated by black margins; individual thalli angular mostly <5mm across but up to 8 mm; areoles 0.2–0.4 mm across, angular, flat with vertical sides, 0.2–0.4 mm thick; cortex absent but a thin epinecral layer 5–10 µm high is patchily developed above an upper, 40–50 µm high, algal-free zone composed of vertically orientated hyphae that are 3–4 µm wide and coated with extra-cellular crystals; medulla I+ pinkish. Photobiont trebouxioid; cells 6–12 µm diam. with a thick hyaline wall, distributed throughout the medulla, often in loose vertical columns.
Apothecia frequent, covering much of the thallus, black, lecideine, adnate to sessile with a broad base, 0.25–0.3(–0.4) mm diam.; disc flat, matt; margin thin,0.02–0.03 mm wide, black, shiny, slightly raised. In section:proper exciple 15–25 µm wide, dark brown-black, annular but extending part way under the hymenium. Hymenium 70–75 µm high; paraphyses c. 2 µm wide, unbranched except near the apices that are up to 5 µm wide and have a brown cap; epihymenium brown, c. 10 µm high. Hypothecium composed of vertically aligned hyphae, upper 25 µm dilute red-brown, becoming darker below and extending 100 µm into the thallus. Asci clavate, c. 30 × 15 µm; apical apparatus indistinct but apparently Biatora-type with a wide apical cushion; ascospores pale grey when immature, becoming brown, 1-septate, with a slight median wall thickening, (10–)11.33±1.56(–15)× (4.5–)5.0±0.37(–6) µm, (n = 12).
Conidiomata rare, red-brown, ±flat, 0.04 mm diam.; wall composed of vertically aligned hyphae c. 2–3 µm wide that gradually widen to 4–5 µm at the surface, upper 20–25 µm becoming increasingly brown pigmented with dark brown caps (similar to the paraphyses); conidiophores not observed; conidiaAmandinea-type, filiform, curved, 17–20 µm long.
Chemistry. K–, C+ pink, KC–, Pd–; 5-O-methylhiascic acid [major], gyrophoric acid [minor or trace] and lecanoric acid [minor or trace] by TLC.
Etymology. Named for Gypsy Cove, the type locality.
Ecology and Distribution. Known only from the Falkland Islands, where it is reported from only a single collection from rocks near the coast at the eastern tip of East Falkland.