Opuscula Philolichenum, 14: 66-81. 2015. *pdf effectively published online 19March2015 via (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/philolichenum/) Lichenes Exsiccati Magnicamporum Fascicle 1, with comments on selected taxa 1 2 CALEB MORSE & DOUGLAS LADD ABSTRACT. – Data are provided for the first 50 numbers of a series exemplifying the lichen biota of the Great Plains of central North America. The set includes two isotypes, duplicates of one paratype, and several rare or regionally restricted taxa. Detailed discussions, images, specimen data, and range maps are provided for three taxa of note: Graphis sophisticascens, Lecania constricta, and Monoblastiopsis nigrocortina. INTRODUCTION In conjunction with floristic studies of the lichens of the Central Grasslands of North America, the authors have assembled exsiccati of representative taxa from the region. Enumerated here are the first 50 numbers distributed by the R.L. McGregor Herbarium (KANU) as Fascicle 1 of Lichenes Exsiccati Magnicamporum. Complete sets have been sent as gifts to BG, BR, BRY, CANL, COLO, F, FH, GZU, H, Herb. Essl., Herb. Ladd, MIN, MSC, NY, OMA, OSC, PRA, and UCR. The primary set has been deposited at KANU. Extending from northern Mexico into southern Canada, the Great Plains of North America can be broadly characterized as the rolling uplands east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the eastern woodland biomes (see, for instance, Barbour & Christensen 1993). This vast region, covering nearly 1.5 million km2, encompasses one of the largest grassland landscapes in the world, including shortgrass, mid-grass, and most of the tallgrass prairie region, as well as the Cross Timbers, Black Hills, and northern shrub-steppe regions (The Nature Conservancy 2007; and fig. 1 herein). This area has received little attention or study from lichenologists, despite the extent and diversity of its habitats and substrates. Our objective in assembling this series is to exemplify the lichen biota of the Great Plains with special emphasis on taxa that are unusual or poorly known outside the region. Fascicle 1 includes 50 specimens representing 44 taxa from 43 collection sites in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming (Fig. 2). Included in Fascicle 1 are isotypes of Fellhanera crucitignorum C.A. Morse & Ladd (Morse & Ladd 2013) and Hyperphyscia confusa Essl., C.A. Morse & S. Leavitt (Esslinger et al. 2012), duplicates of a paratype of Caloplaca lignicola Wetmore (Wetmore 2009), as well as several rarely collected or regionally endemic species. The Great Plains circumscription and distribution of Lecanora pallidochlorina T.H. Nash, B.D. Ryan & Lumbsch has been treated by Ladd and Morse (2012) and that of Caloplaca ulcerosa Coppins & P. James has been discussed by Wetmore (2009). Three additional species included Fascicle 1 warrant comment and are discussed below. 1 CALEB MORSE – R. L. McGregor Herbarium, Biodiversity Research Center, University of Kansas, 2045 Constant Ave., Lawrence, KS 66047, U.S.A. – e–mail: [email protected] 2 DOUGLAS LADD – The Nature Conservancy, 2800 S. Brentwood Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63144, U.S.A. – e– mail: [email protected] 66 Figure 1. Some habitats typical of the Great Plains. A, sandstone cliffs in Cross Timbers forest, Okmulgee State Park, Okmulgee Co., Oklahoma (Lich. Exs. Magnicamporum 14; photo: Katherine J. Morse); B, juniper woodland and shortgrass prairie, Purgatoire Canyon, Comanche National Grasslands, Las Animas Co., Colorado (Lich. Exs. Magnicamporum 43); C, sandsage prairie and cottonwood-willow woodland along Arikaree River, TNC Fox Ranch, Yuma Co., Colorado (Lich. Exs. Magnicamporum31 & 34); D, ponderosa pine-juniper woodlands and eroded badlands, Makoshika State Park, Dawson Co., Montana (Lich. Exs. Magnicamporum 20 & 21). MATERIALS AND METHODS All specimens cited in comments and/or distributed as part of Lich. Exs. Magnicamporum Fascicle 1 were examined by one or both authors; selected specimens were confirmed by specialists. Specimens were subjected to chemical analysis using standard spot tests (Brodo et al. 2001) or Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). TLC was conducted using solvent systems A, C, and sometimes B′, following the methods of Orange et al. (2001). Measurements were made from sections mounted in water, and are presented as a simple range or, where sufficient material allowed, as the average (xˉ) +/- one standard deviation (SD), bounded by the smallest and largest observed values, and followed by the sample size (n) (i.e., (smallest observed) xˉ-1SD – xˉ – xˉ+1SD (largest observed) [n]). 67 Figure 2. Collection localities for specimens distributed as Fascicle 1 of Lichenes Exsiccati Magnicamporum. COMMENTS ON SELECTED SPECIES Graphis sophisticascens Nyl., Lich. Japon. 108. 1890. FIGURES 3, 4A, AND 4B. Description. — Thallus thin, continuous, sublustrous, pale grey to pale sordid or greenish grey, sometimes with a localized narrow band (ca. 0.2 mm) of thin white prothallus; lirellae common, scattered, initially immersed, becoming erumpent, straight to more commonly curved, sinuous, or C-shaped, simple or occasionally with a short branch, to 0.8 (1.7) mm long and 0.15 mm wide, with lustrous, rounded, non- striate black labia; disk exposed, typically as a narrow flat slit, but often with a small portion more broadly exposed (to 0.9 mm broad), covered with fine white pruina; exciple lateral, black, carbonaceous; epithecium brown, the paraphyses with expanded pigmented apices; hypothecium pale to pale yellowish brown; ascospores 8, persistently pale, rotund to bluntly quadrate, (17)20(23) × (8.5)9–11(12.5) µm, initially with (3)4(5) lenticular cells, most or all of the cells becoming longitudinally once-divided into rounded cells, I+ as noted by Nylander. COMMENTS. – This species was described in Nylander’s Lichenes Japoniae (1890), based on a collection from Missouri attributed to William Wirt Calkins. The name is based on an undated, unattributed collection at H-NYL (Lücking et al. 2009). The holotype is on Betula nigra, with only “39. Graphis on Populus Missouri”, in Calkins’ hand, as the label data, and, in different ink and penmanship, an illustration of a spore and the notation “I+ 20–25 10–15”. These measurements correspond to the ascospore sizes given by Nylander in the type description and are likely in Nylander’s hand. As far as we can determine, Calkins never collected in Missouri. A possible scenario was that the specimen, collected and submitted by Charles Hermann Demetrio to Calkins, was forwarded to Nylander, perhaps through John Wiegand Eckfeldt. 68 Figure 3. Known distribution of Graphis sophisticascens (hexagons) and Lecania constricta (circles). Several other early collections exist, all unattributed or collected by Demetrio, and all likely collected by him in the same general area in the 1890’s. Two undated, unattributed specimens bear the same recording error with regard to substrate as the holotype, and are possible isotypes: 1) a specimen at MICH (62801) with a note in Bruce Fink’s hand “On poplar bark, from Missouri, comm. Eckfeldt, collector unknown”; 2) a specimen in F (C0068905F), with a type-written label marked “W.W. Calkins’ N. Am. Lichens” and “Mo. -- super corticem populi n. sp.” The remainder of the specimens with substrate and locality data are attributed to “birch” or “Betula nigra” in the vicinity of Emma, Missouri, sometimes with additional locality data of Davis Creek, a small creek north of Emma. These include an 1894 Demetrio collection (FH 437415) with a label indicating possible distribution as part of the C. Baenitz Herbarium Americanum, an undated Demetrio collection at PH from the Eckfeldt herbarium, identified by R.C. Harris as an isotype (PH 7591), an 1891 Demetrio collection (MICH 10450, BG 62997), an 1893 Demetrio collection (MIN 660727), and an 1897 Demetrio collection (UC 1941945). Emma and nearby Davis Creek span the Lafayette/Saline county line, approximately 55 miles east of Kansas City. These specimens remained the only known collections for the next 96 years, until the species was rediscovered in southwestern Missouri in 1993. Since then, disciplined surveys of mature stands of Betula nigra along streams in the Interior Highlands and southern Great Plains have revealed several other populations. Nylander’s (1890) brief description of the species characterized it as similar to his Graphis sophistica Nyl. (a European species considered by Lücking et al. (2009) to be synonymous with the Neotropical G. platycarpa Eschw.), but with more open lirellae and smaller, slightly inflated ascospores with four transverse septa, each with one longitudinal septum. The species falls in Group 5 of Lücking et al. (2009), who note its similarity to G. tenuirima (Shirley) A.W. Archer, a Paleotropical species described as having larger ascospores and more thinly pruinose disks. 69 Figure 4. A–B, Graphis sophisticascens. A, thallus (scale = 0.5 mm); B, spores 1000× (scale = 20 µm). C– D, Lecania constricta. C, thallus (scale = 0.5 mm), D, ascus with mature spores and paraphyses. Graphis sophisticascens is known to occur only on Betula nigra. The host tree is widely distributed throughout the eastern United States, ranging from the Texas Gulf coast through northern Florida, northwards to southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New England, so it is possible that the range of G. sophisticascens is broader than currently documented. We hope distribution of this series catalyzes more surveys of Betula nigra throughout its range. Graphis scripta (L.) Ach. is