Growth dynamics and the taxonomic status of Cladonia leporina.

摘要

The unusual gross morphology of Cladonia leporina provided the basis for early lichenologists to classify it separately from other species with red apothecia. Their hesitation to include C. leporina with other red-fruited species was based on its ascyphose, abundantly branched thallus, which did not match the characteristic cup-shaped morphology of species that were known in the early nineteenth century. Cladonia leporina was compared by its author with C. rangiferina, which was later recognized within the genus Cladina. The concept of a group to accommodate all of the red-fruited taxa in Cladonia arose during the nineteenth century. Its morphological parameters were subsequently broadened to include both branched and unbranched species. Contemporary lichenologists have classified C. leporina within section Cocciferae, in which all of tile Cladonia species with red apothecia are recognized regardless of morphology. Similar to other branched species with red apothecia, the morphology and morphogenesis of C. leporina suggest that this species is allied with taxa outside of section Cocciferae.