Badimiella Malcolm & Vězda
Type : Badimiella serusiauxii Malcolm & Vězda [B. pteridophila (Sacc.) Garnock-Jones & Malcolm]
Description : Thallus crustose, ecorticate, thin. Photobiont green, chlorococcoid. Ascomata apothecia, biatorine, strongly constricted towards base, disc flat, margins not raised. Exciple paraplectenchymatous, with islands of densely packed birefringent crystals not dissolving in K. Hypothecium colourless. Hymenium colourless I+ blue. Hamathecium of paraphyses, paraphyses sparse, simple, conglutinate, slightly swollen at apices, 1.5 μm diam. Asci cylindrical-clavate 8-spored. Ascospores ellipsoidal, 3-septate, rarely submuriform, occasionally subapiculate at one end. Conidiomata campylidia, cupular at first, becoming helmet-shaped at maturity, furnished on both sides with a single cilium, concealing a concave, conidiogenous layer. Conidia subellipsoidal to bacillar, 1-septate.
Badimiella serusiauxii was first described (but not named) by Emmanuël Sérusiaux from material seen in a collection of foliicolous lichens growing on fern leaves, collected by John Bartlett from the Coromandel Peninsula in 1982 (Sérusiaux 1986: 30). He wrote of the taxon "This collection of foliicolous lichens from New Zealand includes a curious type of campylidium..., although I am unable to assign it to a precise species or even genus at this time. Indeed these campylidia have a conidiogenous layer located in their upper half and, when mature, are totally exposed to the air." A successful search for fertile material was accomplished by Bill Malcolm, and together with Antonin Vězda, they were able to trace the ontogeny of the campylidia. The campylidia and conidia of the lichen differed sufficiently from those of all other genera in the family Ectolechiaceae (to which the taxon was assigned), that a new genus, Badimiella, was created for it (Malcom & Vězda 1994). Apothecia resemble those of Badimia Vèzda, but the new taxon differs in having bacilliform, 1-septate conidia and helmet-shaped campylidia that open fully at maturity (Eriksson & Hawksworth 1995). This monospecific genus, although widely distributed in New Zealand (mainly on fern leaves), was until relatively recently overlooked because of its small size (to the uninitiated the campylidia resemble small, white bird droppings on fern leaves!). Formerly in the family Ectolechiaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004) it is now included in the Pilocarpaceae (Eriksson 2005). Subsequently, Garnock-Jones & Malcolm (2001) established its conspecificity with the earlier described Cyphella pteridophila, based on a 19th century collection of William Colenso.
