Specimen #11: Cladonia coniocraea

Collection #: 11

Scientific Name: Cladonia coniocraea

Phylum: Ascomycota; Lecanoromycetes

Order: Lecanorales

Family: Cladoniaceae

Common Name: Common Powderhorn

Location: Hiram College Field station

Habitat: Dead tree trunk

Date of collecting: October 8th

Collector: Cornelia

Notes: Very hard to key! Powdery green color with little horn like stuctures.

How did I key this out:

Fig.1 Top view of the specimen (1)

Fig.2 Top view of the specimen (2)

Fig.3 Top view of the specimen (3)

Fig.4 Side view of the specimen

The following steps is how I went through the keys:

Key to genus:

1. (B) Thallus fruticose (See Fig.4 for this fact) or cladoniform (61)

61. (B) Thallus cladonifor, usually two fold; a primary thallus on the substrate, crustose or squamulose in form, and a secondary thallus of erect podetia (occasionally lacking) (73)

73. (A) Primary thallus squamulose, the squamules somewhat erect or not; poditia tipped with brown or red (sometimes pale), apothecia or pycnidia, when present; poditia usually club-shaped, or pointed (Cladonia, P43)

Key to species:

1. (B) Podetia simply or sparingly branched, often massed but not forming tangled, shrubby colonies; or podetia absent or much reduced (4)

4. (B) Podetia tipped with brown apothecia, or sterile, or pointed, or absent (8)

8. (B) Podetia not cup-forming; brown apothecia present or absent, or podetia not developed (19)

19. (A) Podetia and squamules sorediate (20)
20. (B) Squamules various; K- or dingy brownish (21)
21. (B) Podetia P+ red (this is a guess) (23)
23. (A) Podetia partially corticate, at least the lower 1/3 (24)
24. (A) Upper 1/2 of podetia ecorticate and mealy sorediate (C. coniocraea)

Fig.5 Top view after a K+ test (top right) under a dissecting scope

Fig.6 Side view under a dissecting scope

Description of the species:
Description: Primary thallus persistent indeterminate extent; squamules dccumbent to suberect, intermediate to long; narrow to intermediate at the base with short linear lobules: distinct but often massed; margins somewhat dissected, usually NIS(undersurfacc often sparsely sorediate);cortex gray-green to brown-green; undersurface cream-white to darkening. Podetia intermediate height; slender, simple usually tapering; arising from central part of squamules; semi-corticate to smooth,corticate below (about 1/3), webby and mealy sorediate above (about 2/3);exposed inner medullary cylinder opaque; tips pointed,tapered or blunt; sterile or with pycnidia; color of cortex, gray-green. otherwise white to darkening. Apothecia brown; rare; none seen on Ohio material; pycnidia brown to black.
Diagnostic features: Pointed, sterile podetia, central on squamules; mealy sorediate two-thirds of upper length: P+ red; compare with C.cylindrica with isidiold bodies toward base, grayanic acid, and C.macilenta with podetia not central, P-. C.ochrochlora closely approximates the description of C. coniocraea, but has larger corticate areas at the base of the podetinum; this species has been confirmed from one Adams County collection.
Ecology: Common in the eastern US, Rocky Mountains, and along the west coast; widespread in Ohio, our commonest Cladonia with pointed podetia; on bark and various organic substrates, rarely directly on soil. Frequent on tree bases in wooded areas.
CHEMISTRY: fumarprotocetraric acd only. Spot tests on undersurface of squamulcs or podetia. K + yellow to dingy brown, C-, P+ red.

Collecting and keying story:

It is a disaster to key out a lichen--I really mean it. There are a ton of chemicals needed, and with those that we do not have, all what we could do is make a guess based on pull out all the possible species first and then look at their pictures. Because of this, all the options after key 21 were all my person guesses. Moreover, for the fruticose lichens, it basically means that it has those horn like things picked out... and the structures we learnt during class are actually a cross section of those things.

Phylum, order and family name cited from:
http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CLCO13

Keys cited from:
The Macrolichens of Ohio by Ray E. Showman and Don G. Flenniken