Sarrameana Vězda & P.James
Type : Sarrameana paradoxa Vězda & P.James [S. albidoplumbea (Hook.f. & Taylor) Farkas]
Description : Thallus crustose, usually prominent and pale-coloured, with or without a delimiting, black prothallus. Photobint green, cells spherical, 10 μm diam. Ascomata apothecia, lecideine or lecanorine, or with a thin layer of thalline tissue overlying the proper margin and appearing lecanorine at least to begin with; disc black or reddish brown, sometimes pale-grey-pruinose. Exciple colourless throughout, inspersed with pigmented granules or pigmented blackish or brown at outer edge only, composed of simple, straight hyphae c. 4 μm thick, radiating from the inner, lower parts of the apothecium. Epithecium mostly brownish or blackish, granular, granules partially dissolving in K. Hymenium colourless, usually inspersed with oil droplets. Hamathecium of paraphyses, straight, simple, to 2 μm thick, separating readily in K, apices not or only very slightly expanded, hyaline or pigmented. Asci clavate, 8-spored, surrounded by an amyloid gel; wall 2 μm thick, non-amyloid; tholus prominent, undifferentiated internally and lacking a masse axiale or ocular chamber. Hypothecium colourless or inspersed with pigmented granules. Ascospores hyaline, thin-walled, non-halonate, spirally arranged in asci, broadly fusiform to ellipsoidal or narrowly fusiform-acicular, usually bent, simple or with 3–7 rather spurious septa. Conidiomata pycnidia, superficial or immersed. Conidia simple, rod-like with acute apices.
The major distinguishing characters of Sarrameana are its distinctive ascus structure, in combination with the structure of the exciple, the mostly straight, simple paraphyses which separate readily in K, and the thin-walled, non-halonate, spirally arranged ascospores. These characters together distinguish Sarrameana from genera such as Bacidia, Lecidea s. lat., Lecanora, Phlyctis, Biatora and Fuscidea, which may contain taxa that may be superficially similar. Apothecial tissues are hyaline or almost so in section, but may be inspersed with coloured granules, dissolving in K. The hymenium is generally inspersed with oil droplets. Thallus chemistry is simple being TLC – or with occasional traces of atranorin.
Sarrameana, originally accommodated in the monogeneric family Sarrameanaceae (Hafellner 1984; Kantvilas & Vězda 1996; Eriksson 1999), is now included with some doubt in the family Fuscideaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), although a recent treatment maintains it in the Sarrameanaceae (Kantvilas 2004f). The genus was first proposed for the New Caledonia species S. paradoxa (Vězda & James 1973) [now synonymised with S. albidoplumbea] and subsequently two additional species from geographically close areas were added to it: S. tasmanica from Tasmania (Vězda & Kantvilas 1988) and S. septata from Papua New Guinea (Aptroot & Sipman 1991), the two taxa being later found also in New Zealand (Vězda et al. 1992; Kantvilas & Vězda 1996). Farkas (1995: 98) added S. albidoplumbea, for a lichen (Bacidia albidoplumbea) that is widespread and with an extensive synonymy both in New Zealand (Galloway 1985a: 27) and in Tasmania (Kantvilas 1993: 43). Sarrameana was monographed by Kantvilas & Vězda (1996) who synonymised S. paradoxa with S. albidoplumbea, and transferred the New Zealand endemic Lecanora cyamidia Stirt., accepting four species in the genus, all of which occur in New Zealand.
Recently, Kantvilas (2000c) transferred S. cyamidia, S. septata and S. tasmanica to the genus Loxospora (q.v.), also in the family Sarrameanaceae (Kantvilas 2004d). Consequently, at present, Sarrameana is regarded as a monospecific genus with S. albidoplumbea as generitype (Kantvilas 2004f). Kantvilas (2000c: 37) records the differences between Sarrameana and Loxospora as follows: "the black, glossy apothecia are gymnocarpic, being emergent from the thallus almost from the beginning and free of any thalline tissue; the hymenium is very heavily inspersed with oil droplets and the simple paraphyses do not readily separate, except after treatment in KOH; the thallus never contains thamnolic acid although traces of atranorin may rarely be present".
