Lindbladia tubulina
| Lindbladia tubulina | |
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| Lindbladia tubulina, fruit body | |
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| Species: | Lindbladia tubulina
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Lindbladia tubulina is a slime mould species from the order Liceida and the only member of its genus.[1]
Characteristics
The plasmodium is sepia-toned, brown-black or black. The fruit body is usually pseudoaethalioide, occasionally up to aethalioid or rarely sporangiat, but then produces dense groups and is mainly unstiped, rarely stiped. The single sporangia are cylindric and create a spotted to cushion-formed aethalium with a diameter from 1 to 15 cm (0.39 to 5.91 in) and a thickness from 2 to 10 mm. Its thickened, black or darkbrown surface is composed of incompletely developed peridium walls and spores, and covers the ochre- to olive-brown interior. The endings of the single sporangia are slightly rough up to distinctly curved outwards and spherical. Their diameter is from 0.4 to 0.8 mm.[1]
The distintive, spongy hypothallus is occasionally membranous, but often multi-layered and produces a permanent subsurface for the fruit body. The peridium is an iridescent, consistently membranous layer. It is smooth on the edges and partly smooth, partly veined and mostly irregularly covered with the small hollows, which have a diameter from 0.4 to 0.8 µm and can be thickened on the edge. Dictydian graunles are found in the shape darker or colourless pellets, which have a diameter from 0.8 to 1,8 µm.[1]
A capillitium or pseudocapillitium is missing. The spores are as spore mass ochre to olive brown, in transmitted light faint-coloured. They are round and have a diameter from 5 to 7 µm, but distydian pellets are generally absent. Its surface is sharply sculptured and produces occasionally a reticular structure. In transmitted light they appear finely thorned.[1]
Habitat
Lindbladia tubulina is widely distributed. It has been found in Ceylon, Japan, North America from Canada to Texas, and in Europe from Scandinavia to Portugal. It is not found in the Neotropics. Many specimens are spotted upon deadwood, brush-wood or conifer needles, rarely also on leaf tree wood. Seasonally they appear from late springtime (April) to early autumn (October).[1]
Classification
The species was first described in 1849 by Elias Magnus Fries. The holotype was found in a collection from Södermanland, Sweden from 1845 by Matts Adolf Lindblad (1821−1899), who is honoured with the genus name. The specific epithet tubulina refers to the tubular sporangia, from which the pseudoaethalium is composed of.[1]
Occasionally, further species were characterized, but they are mostly synonyms of this species, so that the genus is monotypic.