Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Calopadia fusca (Müll.Arg.) Vězda [=Lopadium fuscum Müll.Arg.]

Description : Thallus thin, continuous or dispersed, even. Photobiont green, Trebouxia. Ascomata apothecia, sessile, constricted at base, disc brown or brown-black to black, margins prominent at first, at length disappearing. Exciple paraplectenchymatous. Hypothecium K−. Paraphyses simple or sparingly branched. Asci cylindrical-clavate; apical tholus I+ blue of Sporopodium -type. Ascospores colourless, muriform. Conidiomata campylidia, frequently oriented in the same direction, grey, pale-brown or brown-black. Conidia filiform, curved or spirally contorted, transversely septate.

Calopadia was introduced by Vězda (1986: 208) for taxa formerly included in the Lopadium fuscum group (Santesson 1952: 523). Formerly in the family Ectolechiaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004), it is now included in the Pilocarpaceae (Eriksson 2005), and comprises 15 known species from leaves and bark, the majority being foliicolous (Kirk et al. 2001) and widely distributed in the tropics (Kalb & Vězda 1987; Lücking 1992, 1998b, 1999a; Farkas & Sipman 1997). Calopadia is related to Tapellaria but differs in the pale to dark brownish or brown-black apothecia, the absence of a black epithecium, the almost simple paraphyses and the brownish or aeruginose hypothecium. As in Tapellaria the campylidiospores are filiform, curved and often tapering at one end (Lücking 1992, 1999a). Campylidia in Calopadia are discussed by Vězda (1986), Sérusiaux (1986, 1995), Kalb & Vězda (1987) and Lücking (1992). Recently, Lücking et al. (2000a) proposed that the earlier genus names of Pyrenotrichum Mont.,  Chlorocyphella Speg., and Cyrta Bat. & H.Maia rejected in favour of the later Calopadia; their main reason for proposing this course of action being that all three of these earlier names were based on types expressing only anamorphic characters, and that the names Tapellaria and Calopadia are both well established and widely used for species producing campylidia of this type. Two foliicolous species, both commonly with campylidia, and both with a single large muriform spore in the ascus, and formerly included in Lopadium, are known from New Zealand.