Ramboldia
Crustose lichens containing a trebouxioid alga; thallus smooth, scurfy, areolate, verrucose, or sorediate; apothecia orange, red, brown or black, with a non-algal rim formed of cylindrical hyphae that branch and anastomose, generally arrayed fan-like as seen in cross section; hymenium formed of simple or branched and anastomosing paraphyses; hypothecium colourless; asci clavate or broadly clavate, IKI+ blue with a thickened tholus containing a pale axial mass that extends up the entire height of the tholus; spores 8 per ascus, colourless, simple, elliptical to fusiform.
References: Ryan, Tønsberg, Nash & Hafellner 2004; Spribille 2006; Staiger et al. 2008.
| 1a. | Apothecia black or brownish black; soredia lacking; spores 10-13 × 4.5-5 µ; to be sought in humid forests …[Ramboldia monticola Björk ined.] |
| 1b. | Apothecia deep red or orange-red; soredia present or lacking; spores narrower …2 |
| 2a. | Thallus lacking soredia, grey or green; apothecia ever-present, waxy or glossy, relatively red; not tolerant of prolonged snow burial …Ramboldia gowardiana |
| 2b. | Thallus usually bearing soredia, bluish white, chalky white or brownish; apothecia matte or waxy, relatively orange; usually on lower parts of conifer trunks and usually not fertile unless growing under the snow-line …3 |
| 3a. | External soredia sometimes brownish; atranorin, chloroatranorin and fumarprotocetraric acids absent; thallus K-, P-; to be sought …[Ramboldia subcinnabarina (Tønsberg) Kalb, Lumbsch & Elix] |
| 3b. | External soredia never brownish; atranorin, chloroatranorin and fumarprotocetraric acids present in the thallus, thallus K+ yellow, P+ red; very common …Ramboldia cinnabarina |
Ramboldia cinnabarina (Sommerf.) Kalb, Lumbsch & Elix
Thallus bluish or greenish white, or (less often) creamy white, usually continuous and smooth, or with a few areoles, rarely immersed, with scattered, round or somewhat irregularly shaped, flat to concave or weakly convex soralia 0.4-0.8 mm wide; soredia bluish white or creamy white, 35-70 µ wide; apothecia occasional, 0.3-0.7 (‑1.2) mm wide, waxy, deep orange-red, with a thin and receding rim, the disc moderately convex; hymenium brownish orange throught, also with abundant fine crystals; spores narrowly elliptical, 8-12 × 2-4 µ.
Reactions: K+ yellow, PD+ orange-red.
Contents: Atranorin, chloratranorin and fumarprotocetraric acid, and minor amounts of protocetraric acid.
Habitat: On bark or wood or logs, trunks and branches, above or within the winter snowpack. All forested elevations.
Similar Species: Pyrrhospora gowardiana, which probably grows only at lower elevations, has a darker, greenish grey thallus, lacks soredia, has darker red apothecia, produces more viable asci, and never grows within the winter snowpack.
Specimens: Ahti 38551 (UBC).
Local Status: Common.
References: Tønsberg (1992); Foucard (2001).
Notes: Most commonly fertile when growing within the snowpack.
Ramboldia gowardiana Spribille & Hauck
Thallus smooth, areolate or cracked, shiny or waxy, light olive grey, green or greenish white; apothecia always produced, with a thin, receding rim, deep orange-red, waxy or glossy, 0.3-0.7 (‑1.2) mm wide; hymenium brownish orange throughout, also with abundant fine crystals; spores narrowly elliptical or fusiform, 8-10 × 2-3 µ.
Reactions: K+ yellow, PD+ red, apothecia K+ bleeding rose-pink.
Contents: Fumarprotocetraric acid and atranorin in the thallus, an unknown anthraquinone in the apothecia.
Habitat: On bark of conifer branches and twigs, usually in dry forest, lower to (especially) middle elevations.
Similar Species: A coastal Ramboldia is similar, but has a thicker, more persistent rim and glossier, smoother, greener thallus. It is also known from northern Idaho, and could be found in wet portions of the study area.
Specimens: Goward 02-2128.
Local Status: Uncommon.
References: Spribille & Hauck (2003).