Notulae to the Italian flora of algae, bryophytes, fungi and lichens: 8

In this contribution, new data concerning algae, bryophytes, fungi, and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the algae genus Chara , the bryophyte genera Homalia , Mannia , and Tortella , the fungal genera Cortinarius , Russula , and Stereum , and the lichen genera Cetrelia , Cladonia , Enterographa , Graphis , Lecanora , Lepraria , Multiclavula , Mycomicrothelia , Parmelia , Peltigera , Pleopsidium , Psora , Scytinium , Umbilicaria , and Rhizocarpon . disc


How to contribute
The text of the records should be submitted electronically to: Cecilia Totti (c.totti@ univpm.it) for algae, Marta Puglisi (mpuglisi@unict.it) for bryophytes, Alfredo Vizzini (alfredo.vizzini@unito.it) for fungi, Sonia Ravera (sonia.ravera@unimol.it) for lichens. This species was found in three Ligurian Special Areas of Conservation (SACs): "IT1343419 Monte Serro" (GE 639), "IT1345101 Piana della Magra" (GE 640) and "IT1343502 Parco della Magra-Vara" (GE 716 and GE 717). These sites show strong ecological differences: the Monte Serro site is a small puddle in a ditch, few centimeters deep, colonized by a herbaceous hygrophilous plant community within a Mediterranean maquis habitat. The Magra Valley site is an artificial lake, where C. gymnophylla is widespread in the shallow waters near the banks, growing strictly associated to Myriophyllum spicatum L. The Vara Valley site is a constantly flowing Mediterranean river, where C. gymnophylla grows in both running and stagnant water. Chara gymnophylla was considered by some authors (e.g., Mouronval et al. 2015) as a variety of Chara vulgaris L., because its main diagnostic feature (i.e. rays without cortex) is strongly influenced by growth conditions (Bazzichelli and Abdelahad 2009 and references therein). Moreover, recent genetic analysis suggested that C. gymnophylla should be divided into tylacanthous forms (which are closely related to Chara contraria A.Braun ex Kützing) and aulacanthous forms (which are related to C. vulgaris) (Schneider et al. 2016). Nevertheless, C. gymnophylla is currently accepted as valid species (Guiry and Guiry 2019). In Italy, this species has been recorded from Veneto, Umbria, Lazio, and Sicilia (Bazzichelli and Abdelahad 2009 The site of discovery belongs to the protected area "Parco Regionale delle Alpi Apuane", and it is characterized by an old (temporarily inactive) marble quarry, occurring in the north-western slope of Monte Pelato. This species was found in standing waters at the base of the quarry front. Chara virgata (formerly Chara delicatula C.Agardh) is very similar to Chara globularis Thuiller, from which it is distinguished by the features of the stipulodes (well developed and rudimentary in the upper and lower row, respectively), of the spines (papillar), of the bractlets (longer than the oogonia) and for the isostic or tylacanthous cortex (Bazzichelli and Abdelahad 2009). Nevertheless, such morphological features (particularly the stipulodes) are often mixed in the two species, despite they recently resulted clearly genetically differentiated (Schneider et al. 2016). The two species are also quite different in their ecology: C. virgata is considered as an indicator of oligotrophic waters, while C. globularis is considered as an indicator of eutrophic environments (Blindow 1992;Toivoneh and Huttunen 1995;Krause 1997), although mixed populations of the two species in the same water bodies are known from central Italy (Bazzichelli and Abdelahad 2009) and Poland (Pelechaty et al. 2004). Chara virgata is widespread in Europe, Asia and North America (Guiry and Guiry 2019). In Italy, it was reported in Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardia, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Umbria and Lazio (Bazzichelli and Abdelahad 2009 (1856) as Omalia lusitanica for the Sierra de Sintra in Portugal. It is a species with a Mediterranean-oceanic distribution, restricted to western and southern European countries and North Africa (Ros et al. 2013). It forms green mats on wet, shaded rocks and slopes along streams and on walls of caves from lowland to montane belt. It is easily distinguished from the other species of the genus Homalia by the vein extending ¾ to 4/5 of the way up the leaf, the strongly dentate leaf apex and the presence of pseudoparaphyllia along the stem. In Italy, this species is quite common from the north to the south, where it can be found either on wet vertical rocks or at the entrance of caves (Aleffi et al. 2008). In the new site of the Basilicata Region it was collected sterile on a vertical wall with periodic water percolation in a very humid and shaded situation. Mannia pilosa was found in a small concavity on a vertical dolomite rocks with N-NO aspect. The specimens were characterized by a small thallus, about 5×5 cm wide, showing a single but well developed archegoniophorus; the stalk had many long narrow scales, the epidermis was lacunose and the ventral scales were reddish, characteristics which separate M. pilosa from the other species of the genus Mannia (Frey et al 2006, Damsholt 2009). Our finding represents the first certain record for Trentino-Alto Adige (Aleffi et al 2008); in fact, the report by Düll (1991) for this Region is reported as doubtful in Aleffi et al. (2008), since it derives from a probable misinterpretation of the data reported in Zodda (1934). Mannia pilosa is very rare in Italy, where it was previously reported only for Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia (with old reports published before 1950) and Valle d'Aosta. Mannia pilosa is an Arctic-Alpine species, scattered in the eastern and central Alps up to 3.200 m a.s.l. and very rare in the western Alps (Frey et al 2006); in Europe, it is rare and restricted to a few northern and central countries where it is considered a threatened species (Hodgetts 2015).
D. Spitale Tortella flavovirens var. papillosissima was described by Sérgio and Casas de Puig (1981) for Estepona (Malaga) and is distinguished from T. flavovirens var. flavovirens for the upper and mid-leaf cells with papillae 6-8 μm long, not rounded at the tip, more evident in the pericostal cells. This moss is known at present from Spain, Malta, Sicily, and in the Italian peninsula from the Campania Region (Ros et al. 2013, showing a typical Mediterranean distribution area. During a widespread investigation on the bryophyte vegetation of the garrigues of southern Italy, T. flavovirens var. papillosissima was found in Puglia, representing the second record for the Italian peninsula. The moss was collected from loose soil in dry and more or less exposed places near the sea in the ambit of garrigues with dominance of Thymbra capitata (L.) Cav. at Torre Guaceto and Torre dell'Orte, and garrigues with Halimium halimifolium (L.) Willk. and Erica multiflora L. at Lesina. In these sites it was associated to & Reumaux, due to a strong blood red KOH-reaction on the pileus margin, and to a faint lilac tinge, which was observed only on the upper part of the stipe (not on the pileus and bulb margin), respectively (Vizzini et al. 2012;Brandrud et al. 2018). This species has still locally been reported in Italy, where it should be quite common especially in deciduous oak and mixed-hardwood stands on calcareous soils.
G Russula innocua, a rare species typical of deciduous woods, is associated mainly with Fagus sylvatica L., Carpinus and Tilia, on rich clayey soil. Russula innocua has, as major morphological features, small basidiome, pileus with greenish-green surface, lamellae rather distant, whitish, flesh greying, smell like leaves of Pelargonium and spores with isolate spines (Sarnari 1988). In Italy, it has been recorded for Trentino-Alto Adige (Südtirol) and Umbria, in according with Sarnari (1988 Stereum subtomentosum is distinguishable from the closest species due to a longer projection (up to 5-6 cm) of the reflexed part of basidiomes, which is also sessile (Jülich 1989, Strid 1997 Cetrelia monachorum is a large foliose lichen with rounded marginal lobes and an upper surface with whitish pseudocyphellae (Obermayer and Mayrhofer 2007). It is distinguished from the other taxa of the Cetrelia olivetorum group by some morphological characters (e.g., the shape of the pseudocyphellae) and by its chemical charac-teristics, such as the presence of the imbricaric acid syndrome (major) and perlatolic acid (minor). According to , it is probably the most common species of Cetrelia in Italy, but knowledge on its distribution is still scarce. On this basis, Nascimbene et al. (2013) included it in the Italian Red List of epiphytic lichens as "Data Deficient". In Italy it was previously known for some places in the eastern Alps (Obermayer and Mayrhofer 2007, Nascimbene 2014, Nascimbene and Marini 2015. In the Ligurian locality, which is so far the southernmost in Italy, the species was found on epiphytic bryophytes at the base of chestnut trunks in an abandoned chestnut grove. P. Giordani Baroni (1893), describing a lichen collection made by Emilio Rodegher, reported Cladonia botrytes for Niardo in Val Camonica. The only known lichen herbarium by Emilio Rodegher is currently preserved in PAV, and it fully corresponds with the species list reported by Baroni (1893). Two specimens in the herbarium by Rodegher, collected in two localities of Val Camonica (one in the mountains of Niardo and the other in Mount Concarena), are labelled under «Cladonia botrytes», but they are both instead fertile specimens of Cladonia squamosa Hoffm. It can be inferred that Rodegher had an erroneus concept of «Cladonia botrytes». The other citations of this species for Lombardia are those by Giacomini (1936) and Dalle Vedove et al. (2004), but these authors did not report new records of the species only citing the previous record by Baroni (1893). The same is for . Cladonia pseudopityrea is a rare species in Europe, where it has a scattered distribution in the Mediterranean area (Ahti and Puntillo 1995). Its taxonomic position against the strictly related Cladonia ramulosa (With.) J.R.Laundon is unclear (T. Ahti, pers. comm.). It has been reported in Italy so far only from Sardegna and Calabria , and this is the first record from central Italy. It is also the first record of this species on Castanea sativa Mill. Cladonia pseudopityrea is mainly lignicolous, but it can also be epiphytic, and occurs usually in rather moist woodlands. It is included in the Red List of Italian epiphytic lichens as endangered (Nascimbene et al. 2013 Enterographa zonata has a thallus thin to moderately thick, violet-tinged chocolatebrown with a conspicuous, black marginal prothallus, rare apothecia, speckled with dot-like dark brown soredia that become abraded and pale. It is a rather rare to extremely rare species in Italy , usually found on vertical to underhanging surfaces of hard siliceous rocks and in woodlands, forming mosaics generally in humid habitats under overhangs. All the specimens collected in Southern Italy (Calabria and Basilicata) currently stored in CLU are devoid of apothecia.
D. Puntillo, G. Potenza  (2011) have proposed a new taxonomy for Graphis scripta s.lat., recognizing four distinct taxa: G. betulina (Pers.) Ach., G. macrocarpa (Pers.) Röhl., G. pulverulenta (Pers.) Ach., and G. scripta (L.) Ach. s.str. A more recent study based on both molecular and morphological characters (Kraichak et al. 2015) showed that, although between six and seven putative species are nested within the complex, these do not fully correspond to the taxa that were recently distinguished based on apothecium morphology. Pending a revision of the Italian material, Nimis (2016) treats G. scripta in a broad sense, while the few recent records of the species delimited by Neuwirth and Aptroot (2011) are provisionally treated as separate units. Graphis pulverulenta is a crustose lichen of the G. scripta group, characterised by apothecia with mostly acute ends and widely exposed white-to grey-pruinose discs, found on the bark of broad-leaved trees in various forest types. In Italy it is known to occur in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardia, Piemonte, and Puglia   Lecanora thysanophora is a sorediate, mostly sterile epiphytic species described from North America and firstly reported from Europe (Tønsberg 1999, Harris et al 2000, which has been often confused with sterile specimens of the mainly epilithic Haematomma ochroleucum var. ochroleucum. Both species, when sterile, are extremely similar, and also have a similar chemistry, as they produce atranorin, usnic acid, and zeorin, but L. thysanophora also contains a characteristic set of terpenoids ("thysanophora-unknowns") and (at least in European specimens) lacks porphyrilic acid, which is present in H. ochroleucum (Kukwa and Motiejūnaitė 2005). Furthermore, the soredia of L. thysanophora are ca. 25 μm wide, while those of Haematomma are 30-120 μm wide, and the prothallus of L. thysanophora is often zoned, its hyphae being 4-5(-5.5) μm thick, while the prothallus of Haematomma is not zoned, and the hyphae are 3-3.5(-4) μm thick (Wirth et al. 2013). Although H. ochroleucum may occur also on bark, it is primarily an epilithic species of siliceous rocks, while all previous records from Friuli Venezia Giulia were on bark, based on samples from the two localities cited above; thus, this species should be excluded from the lichen biota of the Region. We suspect that several earlier records of H. ochroleucum from the Alps could be referred to L. thysanophora. P.L. Nimis, E. Pittao Lepraria borealis is a circumboreal species dwelling on siliceous rock and soil in the mountain belt . It is reported with only few scattered records from the Alps ) and elsewhere in Italy , where it was found only recently (Baruffo et al. 2006). It has a granular whitish thallus, which can resemble that of Dibaeis baeomyces (L.f.) Rambold & Hertel, but it has a different chemistry. The specimens analyzed by means of TLC contained rangiformic acid and atranorin.

Lepraria borealis
C Lepraria crassissima is a misunderstood and overlooked species which was reported so far in Italy only from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, and Toscana (Baruffo et al. 2006). It grows mainly on siliceous rock, as the specimen reported here, but can occur also on calcareous rock (Baruffo et al. 2006). The analyzed specimen contained divaricatic and nordivaricatic acids as major compounds, and zeorin and atranorin in traces. Multiclavula mucida is one of the few lichenized basidiomycetes occurring in Italy, mostly growing on rotting stumps. It has been largely neglected by lichenologists, especially due to its ephemeral fruiting bodies, being hitherto known only from Veneto and the Apennines in the Emilia-Romagna region ), but it is likely to be more widespread, being known, for example, from almost all of the Austrian Alps  This epiphytic species (non-or doubtfully lichenised) colonizes smooth bark of deciduous trees in shaded-humid habitats, mostly in the Thyrrenian side of Italy . It is characterized by a prominent white thallus and by numerous, black, ± glo-bose perithecia surrounded by a minute fringe. It is easy recognizable compared to other Pyrenocarpales by the ascospores, which are brown when mature, 1-septate, constricted at the septum to produce two unequally-sized cells. Although it is considered very rare in Italy , it is certainly more widespread than generally believed, but penalized during field observations due to its scarce visibility, as it consists of tiny black spots.
S. Ravera, G. Arosio This species is mostly distributed in alpine and mountainous areas of Europe, North America, and Asia (GBIF.org 2018). In Italy, it is common in the Alps, where it can reach the nival belt, less common in the mountains of southern Italy; in particular, it is rarer in the highest peaks of the Apennines for the paucity of suitable substrata  Peltigera degenii is a foliose terricolous species growing on mossy rocks in forest and on soil rich in humus . It is mainly distributed in the Holarctic Kingdom (Martínez et al. 2003), with an optimum in the mountain belt . Peltigera degenii is characterized by the absence of lichen substances. It may be distinguished by a glossy, glabrous upper surface with membranous lobe and by a pale brown to whitish lower surface with narrow veins and simple rhizines (Goffinet et al. 1994;Vitikainen 1994). In general, this species is not hard to distinguish from other species of the genus Peltigera. Nevertheless, according to Goward et al. (1995), some confusion may emerge with rare glabrous specimens of Peltigera membranacea (Ach.) Nyl., but in this species veins and rhizines are always erect-tomentose.
C. Vallese, J. Nascimbene, R. Benesperi This species is bipolar and reported from Europe, eastern Asia, Australasia, and west coast of North America (GBIF.org 2018). In Italy it is considered mainly as a Tyrrhenian mild-temperate lichen, found amongst terricolous or epilithic mosses in areas with siliceous substrata, sometimes on soil , seemingly most frequent in the western and southern Alps .
G Umbilicaria decussata is a cosmopolitan species reported from Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australasia, and Antarctica (GBIF.org 2018). It is found on steeply inclined to slightly underhanging surfaces of wind-exposed siliceous rocks; it can reach the nival belt in the Alps and it is also reported from the mountains of Calabria .