Heppia is a genus of olive, brownish, gray, or blackish squamulose, crustose, or peltate like lichens.[2] Heppia was once the type genus of the family Heppiaceae, but that family was folded into synonymy with Lichinaceae.[3]

Heppia
Heppia lutosa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lichinomycetes
Order: Lichinales
Family: Lichinaceae
Genus: Heppia
Nägeli ex A.Massal. (1854)
Type species
Heppia adglutinata
(Kremp.) A.Massal. (1854)
Synonyms[1]

The genus name of Heppiella is in honour of Johann Adam Philipp Hepp (1797–1867), a German physician and lichenologist.[4]

The genus was circumscribed by Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli and Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in Geneac. Lich. (Verona) 7–8 in 1854.

Description edit

Heppia species grow on rock or soil in arid sites around the world, in habitats similar to those favored by Peltula, which is similar but has a different cyanobacterium as the photobiont.[2] It lacks a medulla that is separate from the photobiont layer.[2] It is a cyanolichen with the photobiont cyanobacterium being Syctonema (or Syctonema-like).[2] The lower surface is paler than upper surface, and has numerous rhizoidal hyphae attaching it to the substrate.[2] The fruiting structures (ascomata) are apothecias immersed in the thallus with red to red-brown urn shaped (urceolate) to flat or slightly convex discs.[2] An exciple may or may not be present.[2]

Species edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Synonymy: Heppia Nägeli ex A. Massal". Species Fungorum. CAB International. Retrieved 2014-10-31.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1, Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bugartz, F., (eds.) 2001, [1]
  3. ^ Schultz, Matthias; Büdel, Burkhard (2003). "On the systematic position of the lichen genus Heppia". The Lichenologist. 35 (2): 151–156. doi:10.1016/s0024-2829(03)00019-7. S2CID 85595474.
  4. ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen [Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. S2CID 246307410. Retrieved January 27, 2022.