Assessed as Endangered B2ab(ii,iii,iv,v), ver 3.1; date assessed: October 8, 2019

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Common name(s): English: Appalachian Matchsticks

ASSESSMENT JUSTIFICATION [criteria: B2ab(ii,iii,iv,v)]

Pilophorus fibula (Appalachian Matchsticks) warrants listing as endangered under the B2ab(ii,iv) criteria as its AOO is less than 500 square kilometers, its subpopulations are severely fragmented, and there has been a decline in the AOO and number of locations.

Assessor/s: Lendemer, J., Allen, J. & McMullin, T.; Reviewer/s: Yahr, R.; Facilitator(s) and Compiler(s): Scheidegger, C.

Bibliography:

IUCN. 2020. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2020-1. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 19 March 2020).

Lendemer, J.C., R.C. Harris, & E.A. Tripp (2013) The Lichens and Allied Fungi of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The New York Botanical Garden Press.

McMullin, R.T. (2018) New and interesting lichens and allied fungi from British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec, Canada. Opuscula Philolichenum 17: 6-23.

 

Find out more about the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria here.

MB# 476222

TYPE. UNITED STATES. NEW HAMPSHIRE, "Last Ford of the Ammonoosuck [sic] under Mt. Washington" [Coos County, Ammonoosuc Ravine] 1844, E. Tuckerman s.n. (FH 00259039, holotype).

Description. Lichenized, tripartite fungus.

Thallus dimorphic. Primary thallus squamulose, persistent; squamules scale-like, gray-green, up to 2 mm diam., composed of granules. Pseudopodetia concolorous with and arising from the primary thallus, solid, erect, unbranched, rarely > 1 mm tall, sometimes absent. Photobiont Trebouxia (Asterochloris?) alga; cells ~6 μm diam., in a discontinuous algal layer. Cephalodia flat, granular, olive-brown disks, ~1 mm diam. between scales of the primary thallus; cyanobiont Stigonema. Ascomata biatorine apothecia, black, subglobose, 1 mm diam., on pseudopodetial tips or directly on the thallus as sessile; exciple absent; hymenium up to 120 μm high; hypothecium dark brown, paler near center. Asci 8-spored; ascospores simple, hyaline, ellipsoid becoming acicular, 17-23 x 5.5-6.5 μm. Pycnidia solitary, on minute pseudopodetia; conidiophores ~30 μm long, unbranched; conidia terminal, sickle-shaped, 6 x 1 μm.

Chemistry. Atronorin, zeorin.

Substrate and Habitat. On moist rocks along streams in mountain forests.

Distribution. Eastern North America from southern Appalachians to Canadian Maritimes; in North Carolina in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.

Literature

Brodo, I.M., S. Duran Sharnoff & S. Sharnoff. (2001) Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 795 pp.

Fink, B. (1935) The Lichen Flora of the United States. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 426 pp.

Jahns, H.M. (1981) The genus Pilophorus. Mycotaxon 13(2): 289-330.

Rikkinen, J. (2002) Cyanolichens: an evolutionary overview. Pp. 31-72 in Rain, A.N., B. Bergman & U. Rasmussen (eds.): Cyanobacteria in Symbiosis. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands. 

Tuckerman, E. (1848) A synopsis of the lichenes of New England, the other Northern states, and British America. George Nichols, Cambridge. 93 pp. (original description as Stereocaulon fibula).

Tuckerman, E. (1882) Synopsis of the North American Lichens: Part I, comprising the Parmeliacei, Cladoniacei and Coenogoniei. S.E. Cassino, Boston.