The poorly known in Russia sporodochial lichen genus Sporodophoron (Arthoniaceae) with one species new to the country and continental Eurasia

Abstract

The genus Sporodophoron (Arthoniaceae, lichenized Ascomycota) is characterized by whitish, convex, and usually discrete or rarely becoming confluent sporodochia and conidia formed in zigzag-shaped and occasionally branched chains. It consists of four species, and only S. primorskiense was known in Russia, in a single locality in the Primorye Territory. Here we report the second locality of S. primorskiense and two localities of new to Russia S. gossypinum, all from the deciduous and mixed forests of the very south of the Primorye Territory. Morphology and chemistry of our specimens are briefly discussed in comparison with the literature data. Using HPLC-UV-MS, in S. gossypinum we detected several minor and trace compounds previously unknown to the species, namely confluentic acid, 4-O-methylolivetolcarboxylic acid, hyperlatolic acid, and perlatolic acid. Using mass-spectrometry, we found that “lepraric high unknown” substance has the same molecular formula and fragmentation pattern as lepraric acid. The find of S. gossypinum is also confirmed by the mrSSU sequence.