Parmelia asiatica A. Crespo & Divakar

Ossowska, Emilia Anna, 2023, Notes on sorediate Parmelia species in North America with the first records of P. asiatica and P. barrenoae, Phytotaxa 619 (2), pp. 152-160 : 155-157

Parmelia asiatica A. Crespo & Divakar , in Lumbsch et al., Phytotaxa 18: 94 (2011). Fig. 1

Type:— CHINA. YUNNAN: Jianchuan County, Shi Bao Shan Park , 75 km S of Lijiang , 26º 22’N, 99º 50’E, 2490 m, on Rhododendron tree trunk, Crespo et al. s.n. (holotype MAF-Lich 16478 ) .

Thallus foliose, small, up to 3 cm in diameter, loosely to adnate to the substrate; upper surface grey to whitish grey, in the herbarium developing a yellowish tinge, shiny, epruinose; lobe apices often brown; lobes narrow, sublinear, deeply indented, not overlapping, 0.5–3 mm wide and with acute apices ( Fig. 1A & B ); pseudocyphellae mostly marginal, with a few laminal sometimes connected to those marginal, white, linear to irregular; soredia whitish to brownish with age, granular, in terminal (young lobes, Fig. 1C ) or marginal (older lobes) soralia, very rarely soralia partly laminal ( Fig. 1D ); lower surface black to brown at the lobe margins; rhizines abundant, black, simple to squarrose, 0.25–1.5 mm long (shorter on the margins and longer in central part of thalli); apothecia not observed. For the description, see also Lumbsch et al. (2011) and Lishtva et al. (2013).

Chemistry: atranorin, salazinic and consalazinic acids.

Distribution and habitat: The records of P. asiatica presented here are the first from North America. The species has been found on the bark of trees in mountain areas of Canada (British Columbia) and the USA (Washington State and Alaska). The new records and previous citations suggest that P. asiatica prefers mountain areas. A map of known localities of P. asiatica is presented in Fig. 2 .

Notes: The diagnostic features of P. asiatica are mostly marginal pseudocyphallae, simple to squarrose rhizines, an in particular the development of terminal to marginal soralia, which are not observed in any other species of the genus ( Lishtva et al. 2013; Lumbsch et al. 2011). The marginal soralia were not observed in the type specimen, the only collection in existence when the species was described ( Lumbsch et al. 2011), but later they were found after examining additional collections from Russia ( Lishtva et al. 2013).

The species is morphologically and chemically very similar to the cosmopolitan P. sulcata , European P. encryptata and P. hygrophiloides Divakar, Upreti & Elix known from the Indian subcontinent, but these species have laminal soralia and pseudocyphellae ( Table 1 ) and lobes that are broader than in P. asiatica ( Hale 1987; Divakar et al. 2003; Molina et al. 2011a; Lumbsch et al. 2011; Ossowska et al. 2021; Table 1 ). Parmelia sulymae Goward, Divakar, M.C. Molina & A. Crespo , a species described from North America, has sublinear, narrow lobes like P. asiatica ( Molina et al. 2017); however, this species differs in having bifurcate rhizines, and only marginal soralia ( Table 1 ). Additionally, P. sulymae produces soredia, which are more compact and are called sorsidia ( Molina et al. 2017).

Parmelia asiatica produces atranorin with salazinic and consalazinic acids, which makes the species similar to three other species, P. fraudans (Nyl.) Nyl. , P. hygrophila Goward & Ahti and P. submontana Nádv. ex Hale ( Table 1 ). These taxa differ, however, in the production of soredia resembling isidia ( Goward & Ahti 1983; Hale 1987).

According to Lumbsch et al. (2011) and Lishtva et al. (2013) P. asiatica can be confused with P. protosulcata Hale. Both species have marginal soralia, but only in P. asiatica are the young soralia terminal. They also differ chemically and geographically as P. protosulcata produces protocetraric and lobaric acids and is known from Southern Hemisphere ( Hale 1987). Parmelia protosulcata has now been placed in the genus Notoparmelia A. Crespo, Ferencova & Divakar ( Ferencova et al. 2014).

Parmelia taxa that prefer a montane habitat are P. discordans Nyl. , P. omphalodes (L.) Ach. , and P. pinnatifida Kurok. ( Hale 1987; Molina et al. 2004; Thell et al. 2008) or sometimes P. saxatilis ( Corsie et al. 2019) . However, they are characterized by the absence of vegetative propagules or the presence of isidia, and the frequent presence of lobaric acid and fatty acids ( Ossowska et al. 2019). These compounds, are always absent in P. asiatica .

The phylogenetic position of P. asiatica within the genus has not yet been supported by molecular data, although Lumbsch et al. (2011) stated that nucITS rDNA sequences of the species show that is not closely related to the morphologically similar P. sulcata . Unfortunately, the North American specimens were too old to be successfully sequenced.

Material examined. CANADA. British Columbia: Mackenzie river, vicinity of Norman Wells near mile 580, 65°13’0.00”N, 126°32’52.0”W, corticolous, July 1964, F. West ( UBC L-45897 ); Bell-Irving river , 6 km NE of summit, 56°16’N, 129°09’W, humid, shrubby, old growth forest opening, corticolous, 8 July 1995, T. Goward 95–543 & D. Miege ( UBC L-32101 ); Bear Flat , road 29, corticolous, 1 August 1977, G. F. Otto 6255 ( UBC L-13883 ); E shore of Atlin lake , 4 km N of O’Donnel river , near Warm Bay road, 59°25’N, 133°30’W, open Abies forest, corticolous, 9 July 1982, T. Goward 82–548 & A. O. Ceska ( UBC L-22306 ); Clayoguot Sound, Sloman Island , corticolous, 28 November 1993, K. Wulff ( UBC L-35258 ) . USA. Washington: Clallam county, Olympic National Park above Heart O’ the hills, 48°03’N, 123°25’W, corticolous, 31 March 1992, S. D. Sharnoff 858.03 & S. Sharnoff ( CANL 116902 ) ; Alaska, Nagai Island, Shumagin Island , 55°08’02.0”N, 159°51’43.7”W, corticolous, 31 July 2006, S. S. Talbot NAG1-30 ( UBC L-40695 ); Ugashik Narrows, Mountain 1727 , 57°33’19”N, 156°46’48”W, corticolous, 11 July 1998, S. S. Talbot 98-5- 36, W. B. Schofield & S. L. Talbot ( UBC L-39356 ); 57°32’37”N, 156°45’57”W, corticolous, 16 July 1998, S. S. Talbot 98-22-31A, W. B. Schofield & S. L. Talbot ( UBC L-39401 ) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Morphology of Parmelia asiatica; A—narrow lobes with marginal and terminal soralia (A—UBC L-40695; B—UBC L- 22306;), B, C—lobes with mostly terminal soralia (C—UBC L-32101), D—lobes with squarrose rhizines and marginal and partly laminal pseudocyphellae and soralia (UBC L-40695). Scale bars: 1 mm.

FIGURE 2. Distribution map of Parmelia asiatica;A—localities in Asia, according to literature data, B—new localities in North America (base map provided by Natural Earth, www.naturalearthdata.com).