Pyxine

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Genus of lichens

title: "Pyxine" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["pyxine", "caliciales-genera", "lichen-genera", "taxa-named-by-elias-magnus-fries", "taxa-described-in-1825"] description: "Genus of lichens" topic_path: "general/pyxine" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyxine" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of lichens ::

| image = Pyxine sorediata - Flickr - pellaea.jpg | image_caption = Pyxine sorediata | taxon = Pyxine | authority = Fr. (1825) | type_species = Pyxine sorediata | type_species_authority = (Ach.) Mont. (1842) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivisions = | synonyms_ref = | synonyms = *Phragmopyxine

Pyxine is a genus of foliose lichens in the family Caliciaceae. The genus has a widespread distribution in tropical regions. It was established in 1825 by the Swedish botanist Elias Fries and is distinguished from similar lichens by its characteristic golden fluorescence under ultraviolet light due to the compound lichexanthone. These small, leaf-like lichens form radiating rosettes with narrow and tiny white lines called pseudocyphellae that act as air vents on their upper surface.

Taxonomy

The Swedish botanist Elias Magnus Fries erected the genus Pyxine in 1825, selecting Lecidea sorediata (now Pyxine sorediata) as the type species and placing it in his tribe Pyxinae alongside Umbilicaria because both possessed a "naked" . By 1885 William Nylander already recognised four species whose circumscription is broadly retained today. Fertile Pyxine is distinguished from kindred foliose genera such as Physcia, Dirinaria and Physconia by a subtle purple-violet reaction of the apothecial epithecium to potassium hydroxide solution, a characteristically dark and, most conspicuously, apothecial margins that usually lack algal cells. Additional hallmarks—including frequent pseudocyphellae and a lichexanthone-rich cortex that fluoresces golden under long-wavelength ultraviolet light—were noted early in its study and remain reliable diagnostic features. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Pyxine_subcinerea_Missouri_Ultraviolet.jpg" caption="''Pyxine subcinerea'', photographed in 365 [[nanometre]] ultraviolet light, is very fluorescent due to the presence of lichexanthone."] ::

Dirinaria is generally accepted as Pyxines closest ally; both genera grow in tropical and subtropical regions and were even combined by some nineteenth-century authors. Nevertheless, they differ consistently in thallus architecture—Dirinaria lobes tend to coalesce laterally, a condition absent in Pyxine—and in secondary chemistry, with Pyxine commonly pairing triterpenes with norstictic acid rather than the divaricatic acid-series compounds typical of Dirinaria.

Description

Pyxine lichens form small, leaf-like (foliose) rosettes whose lobes radiate from a more-or-less central point. Individual lobes are typically narrow—often no more than 0.3–1.5 mm wide—and may look slightly wavy or even swollen in some species. The upper surface is usually pearl-grey to dull yellow-grey and can develop a subtle sugary bloom () near the tips. A distinctive feature of the genus is the presence of pseudocyphellae: tiny breaks in the upper that appear as fine white lines or a faint network; these act as microscopic air-vents and are absent from many look-alike genera. Vegetative propagules occur along a continuum: some species have fluffy soredia, others pustule-like cushions, and a few produce true cylinder-shaped isidia, so a specimen may show more than one kind of outgrowth on the same thallus. The underside is black with sturdy black root-like rhizines that keep the thallus firmly attached to bark or rock.

The fruiting bodies (apothecia) sit flush with the thallus and carry a flat to slightly domed blackish surrounded by a low rim that often lacks algae, giving an almost look. Slice tests show the rim is in fact a modified margin, and a pale internal stalk tissue ("stipe") may be visible beneath the disc; when a drop of potassium hydroxide solution is added in section the epithecium typically turns a faint violet, another quick clue to the genus. Ascospores are thick-walled, brown, and two-celled. Chemically, most Pyxine species manufacture the yellow pigment lichexanthone in the upper cortex—specimens glow gold under long-wave UV light—while the medulla often contains mixtures of norstictic acid, testacein, and characteristic triterpenes. This chemical palette, together with the dark hypothecium and reticulate pseudocyphellae, separates Pyxine from superficially similar members of the Caliciaceae such as Dirinaria and Physcia.

Species

, Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accept 47 species of Pyxine. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Pyxine_caesiopruinosa_-Flickr-pellaea(1).jpg" caption="''Pyxine caesiopruinosa''"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Pyxine_eschweileri_-Flickr-_pellaea.jpg" caption="''Pyxine eschweileri''"] ::

References

References

  1. (2014). "A world key to the species of ''Pyxine'' with lichexanthone, with a new species from Brazil". The Lichenologist.
  2. (1987). "Pyxinaceae (Lichens). Flora of the Guianas". Koeltz Scientific Books.
  3. Awasthi, D.D.. (1980). "''Pyxine'' in India". Phytomorphology.
  4. "''Pyxine''".
  5. Fries, E.M.. (1825). "Systema Orbis Vegetabilis". Typographia Academica.
  6. (2011). "A new species and a new record of ''Pyxine'' (Physciaceae) with norstictic acid from São Paulo State, Brazil". Mycotaxon.
  7. (2011). "The ''Pyxine pungens'' complex in São Paulo State, Brazil". The Bryologist.
  8. Kalb, K.. (1987). "Brasilianische Flechten. 1. Die Gattung ''Pyxine''". Bibliotheca Lichenologica.
  9. Kalb, K.. (1994). "''Pyxine'' species from Australia". Herzogia.
  10. Kalb, K.. (2004). "New or otherwise interesting lichens. II". Bibliotheca Lichenologica.
  11. (2009). "New or otherwise interesting lichens V". Bibliotheca Lichenologica.
  12. Kashiwadani, H.. (1977). "The genus ''Pyxine'' (lichens) in Papua New Guinea". Bulletin of the National Science Museum Tokyo.
  13. (2008). "Dictionary of the Fungi". CAB International.
  14. Moberg, R.. (1980). "Studies on Physciaceae (Lichens) 1. A new species of ''Pyxine''". Norwegian Journal of Botany.
  15. Moberg, R.. (1986). "Lichenes selecti exsiccati upsaliensis, Fasc. 1 (Nos 1-25)". Thunbergia.
  16. (2012). "The lichen family Physciaceae in Thailand—I. The genus ''Pyxine''". Phytotaxa.
  17. (2013). "Two new species of saxicolous ''Pyxine'' with yellow medulla from southern India". The Lichenologist.
  18. Rogers, R.W.. (1986). "The genus ''Pyxine'' (Physciaceae, Lichenized Ascomycetes) in Australia". Australian Journal of Botany.
  19. Stirton, J.. (1897). "A new classification of the genus ''Pyxine''". Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.
  20. "Synonymy: ''Pyxine'' Fr.". Species Fungorum. CAB International.
  21. (2020). "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa". Mycosphere.
  22. Vainio, E.A.. (1913). "Lichenes insularum Philippinarum. II". Philippine Journal of Science Section C Botany.
  23. (2019). "New species and records of ''Pyxine'' (Caliciaceae) in China". MycoKeys.

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