Cryptothecia

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Genus of lichens

title: "Cryptothecia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cryptothecia", "arthoniomycetes-genera", "lichen-genera", "taxa-described-in-1876", "taxa-named-by-james-stirton"] description: "Genus of lichens" topic_path: "general/cryptothecia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptothecia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of lichens ::

| image = Cryptothecia.jpg | image_caption = Cryptothecia sp. growing on a tree in Chaco Province, northern Argentina | taxon = Cryptothecia | authority = Stirt. (1876) | type_species = Cryptothecia subnidulans | type_species_authority = Stirt. (1876) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = See text | synonyms_ref = | synonyms = *Herpothallonomyces Cif. & Tomas. (1954)

  • Myxotheca

Cryptothecia is a genus of white to greenish crustose lichens that grow on bark, wood, or leaves, in tropical or subtropical areas worldwide. It has a conspicuous prothallus that develops around its periphery which can be bright red in some species, hence the common name wreath lichen. The main vegetative body (thallus) lacks a cortex (ecorticate and is often immersed in the substrate or byssoid (whispy, like teased wool). The medulla is white, well defined, and often peppered with calcium oxalate crystals. Ascomata are not well defined, being cushions of soft white mycelium immersed in the medullary tissue, hence the name from the Greek krypto = "to conceal" and theke = "a container or sheath". It contains Trentepohlia, a green alga, as its photobiont partner.

Two species have been described in North America. At least one species, Cryptothecia rubrocincta, has been used in Brazil as a source of dye.

Taxonomy

The genus was circumscribed by James Stirton in 1877, with Cryptothecia subnidulans assigned as the type species.

Description

Species in the genus Cryptothecia have a crustose thallus, which can be either immersed in the or its surface. The colour of the thallus ranges from white to greenish, often with a (cottony) texture. Some species have spherical isidia-like , although soredia are absent. The prothallus typically consists of interwoven or radiating hyphae, and the may be either distinct or indistinct. The medulla is usually well-defined, white, and frequently amyloid, often containing numerous colourless calcium oxalate crystals.

Cryptothecia does not have well-defined ascomata (fruiting bodies). Its areas, which can be common or rare, are restricted to cushions of soft white mycelium within the loose medullary tissue. These areas tend to spread over the whole thallus, forming small clusters near the surface or cushion-like structures. Asci are spherical to ovoid, , and thick-walled, typically measuring 60–160 by 30–130 μm. They are enclosed in a cocoon-like layer and contain 1–8 spores. The are , ellipsoidal, and often somewhat curved, ranging from 40–110 by 15–65 μm in size.

Conidiomata in Cryptothecia are and range from immersed in the substrate to emergent, with a dark brown wall. Conidiogenous cells are , and (rod-shaped) to narrowly (club-shaped_. The conidia are colourless, simple, bacilliform, and range from 3–8 by about 1 μm, or they can be thread-like, (threadlike), and multiseptate, measuring 110–140 by about 1.5 μm.

Species

, Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accepts 53 species of Cryptothecia. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Cryptothecia_punctosorediata_-Flickr-_pellaea.jpg" caption="''Cryptothecia punctosorediata''"] ::

References

References

  1. Brodo, I. M., S. D. Sharnoff, and S. Sharnoff. 2001. Lichens of North America. Yale University Press: New Haven.
  2. Mors, WB. 1966. Useful Plants of Brazil. Holden-Day, Inc., San Francisco. Page 57.
  3. (2010). "The lichen genus ''Cryptothecia'' (Arthoniaceae) in Java". Australasian Lichenology.
  4. (2017). "New lichen species and lichen reports from Amazon forest remnants and Cerrado vegetation in the Tocantina Region, northern Brazil". The Bryologist.
  5. (2021). "New crustose lichens from a tropical coastal area in Paraná (Brazil)". Cryptogamie, Mycologie.
  6. (2022). "New species of lichenized fungi from Brazil, with a record report of 492 species in a small area of the Amazon Forest". The Bryologist.
  7. (2024). "The taxonomy of sterile Arthoniaceae from Brazil: white crusts on overhanging tropical trees can be named". The Lichenologist.
  8. (2013). "The lichen genera ''Cryptothecia'', ''Herpothallon'' and ''Helminthocarpon'' (Arthoniales) in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador". The Lichenologist.
  9. "''Cryptothecia''".
  10. (2016). "First inventory of lichens from the Brazilian Amazon in Amapá State". The Bryologist.
  11. (2018). "Fungal Biodiversity Profiles 61 – 70". Cryptogamie, Mycologie.
  12. (2009). "Cryptothecia". Australian Biological Resources Study/CSIRO Publishing.
  13. (2015). "A first assessment of lichenized Arthoniales in Bolivia with descriptions of two new species". Phytotaxa.
  14. (2019). "New lichenized Arthoniales and Ostropales from Mexican seasonally dry tropical forest". The Bryologist.
  15. (2013). "Two new species of ''Cryptothecia'' from NE Brazil". The Lichenologist.
  16. (2013). "New species of Arthoniales from NE Brazil". The Lichenologist.
  17. (2016). "''Cryptothecia stockeri'' (Arthoniales, Arthoniaceae), a new corticolous lichen species from the Seychelles". Herzogia.
  18. (2009). "New species and new records of ''Cryptothecia'' and ''Herpothallon'' (Arthoniales) from India". The Lichenologist.
  19. (2016). "A world key to ''Cryptothecia'' and ''Myriostigma'' (Arthoniaceae), with new species and new records from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India". Phytotaxa.
  20. (2009). "''Cryptothecia evergladensis'' sp. nov. (Arthoniaceae), a new lichen species from Everglades National Park, Florida". Opuscula Philolichenum.
  21. (2014). "Four new species and sixteen new lichen records for North America from Everglades National Park". The Bryologist.
  22. (2017). "The lichens of Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, Key Largo, Florida, USA". Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History.
  23. (2005). "''Cryptothecia punctosorediata'', a new species from Northern Thailand". The Lichenologist.
  24. "Synonymy: ''Cryptothecia'' Stirt., Proc. Roy. phil. Soc. Glasgow 10: 164 (1876) [1877]". [[Species Fungorum]].
  25. (1877). "Descriptions of recently discovered lichens". Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow.
  26. (1997). "The genus ''Cryptothecia'' in Australia and New Zealand and the circumscription of the genus". Symbolae Botanicae Upsalienses.
  27. (2017). "''Cryptothecia austrocoreana'' (Arthoniales, Arthoniaceae), a new species from South Korea". Mycobiology.
  28. (2009). "The lichen genera ''Cryptothecia'' and ''Stirtonia'' in northern Thailand". Bibliotheca Lichenologica.

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