Heteroplacidium compactum | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Ascomycota |
Class: | Eurotiomycetes |
Order: | Verrucariales |
Family: | Verrucariaceae |
Genus: | Heteroplacidium |
Species: | H. compactum
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Binomial name | |
Heteroplacidium compactum | |
Synonyms[1] | |
List
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Heteroplacidium compactum is a species of areolate, crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution. It is a lichenicolous lichen, growing as a facultative parasite on other lichens, typically on non-calcareous rock. It has rod-shaped (bacilliform) conidia measuring 5–7 μm long, and ascospores that are 11–18 by 8–10 μm.[2] Heteroplacidium zamenhofianum is a closely related species distinguished by having perithecia situated in the algal layer, and smaller ascospores (14–16 by 6–7 μm) with a more narrow ellipsoid shape.[3]
The lichen was originally described in 1857 by Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo as Placidium compactum. After having been shuffled to various genera in its taxonomic history,[1] it was transferred to Heteroplacidium in 2008 following molecular phylogenetic analysis of that genus.[4]