The genus Caeruleum (Lichinomycetes, incertae sedis): A new species from South Africa and a preliminary revision of the genus in North America

Abstract

We describe the new species Caeruleum terricola from Grootbos Private Nature Reserve in the Overstrand Municipality of Western Cape Province, South Africa. The new species occurs on consolidated soil and is characterized by its lack of an epigeic thallus, innate apothecia that are often blue-gray to green pruinose and polysporous asci. Nuclear and mitochondrial ribosomal DNA data place the new species within the genus Caeruleum in the Lichinomycetes . We discuss the taxonomic status of previously described species of Caeruleum and their relationship to our new species with particular emphasis on the status of the genus in North America and make the new combination Caeruleum aeruginosum . We also discuss other polysporous species of lichenized fungi reported from South Africa, an unexplained insertion in the ITS1 section of the genome of C. terricola, and how the addition of this and other species affects the systematic relationships within Lichinomycetes, specifically the circumscription of the Thelocarpaceae and its constituent genera . Graphical Abstract

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