Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Amandinea coniops (Wahlenb.) M.Choisy ex Scheid. & H.Mayrhofer [Lecidea coniops Wahlenb.]

Description : Thallus crustose, plane, cracked to areolate, bullate or squamulose, brown. Medulla I−. Ascomata apothecia, biatorine to lecideine, 0.5–0.8 mm diam., broadly sessile; disc plane to convex; margins thick, persistent. Exciple aethalea -type. Hymenium without oil droplets, 58–80 μm tall; epithecium of darkly capitate cells immersed in diffuse brown, bluish green, olive-grey or yellow-brown pigment. Hypothecium of similar colours, to dark-brown, or colourless. Asci Bacidia -type, apical cushion conic (sometimes domed), truncated conic, arcuate or more rarely cylindric, ellipsoidal or bulbous; remainder of tholus I+ often stained more strongly adjacent to apical cushion; amyloid layer above apical cushion distinct or thin, occasionally lacking; ocular chamber conic or weakly developed. Ascospores Physconia -type, 1-septate, brown, broadly oblong, constricted at septum, 13–18 × 7–9.5 μm, spore wall ornamented or not, wrinkled. Conidiomata pycnidia. Conidiophores Roccella -type. Conidia filiform, curved, ± 0.8 μm wide, 15–30 μm long.

Amandinea, included in the family Physciaceae nom. cons. (Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), was segregated from Buellia by Choisy (1950) on the basis of having long, filiform conidia (up to 30 μm long). Since Choisy did not provide a Latin diagnosis his genus description was not validly published. It was subsequently validated by Scheidegger & Mayrhofer (Scheidegger 1993) who provide details of the genus and of its relationship with taxa in Buellia. Forty species are currently recognised in Amandinea (Scheidegger 1993; Matzer et al. 1994b; Sheard & May 1997; Mayrhofer et al. 1999; Giralt et al. 2000b; Marbach 2000; Mayrhofer & Moberg 2002a; Mayrhofer & Sheard 2002; Hafellner 2004a) of which 13 occur in New Zealand, 8 of them still undescribed (Blaha 2002). The genus is heterogeneous having apothecium and spore types common to both Buellia and Rinodina. Conidial characters are used to separate these three genera (Sheard & May 1997). Phylogeny in the family Physciaceae inferred from ITS sequences (Lohtander et al. 2000), places Amandinea, Buellia and Dimelaena together in clade, grouping with Diplotomma, these two clades forming a sister group to the rest of the family. Seven species are treated in this account.