A phylogenetic study of the Lecanora rupicola group (Lecanoraceae, Ascomycota)

A molecular phylogeny of the Lecanora rupicola group is presented, based on ITS sequence analyses. The study includes saxicolous and corticolous members of the Lecanora rupicola group as well as other Lecanora species with pruinose apothecia. A phylogenetic hypothesis for species in Lecanora s. lat. and various other genera in Lecanoraceae, based on an alignment-free distance estimation technique, shows that the Lecanora rupicola group forms a monophyletic clade within Lecanoraceae. Affinities to the core group of Lecanora are not well supported, likewise the monophyly of Lecanora s. str. with other species groups in Lecanora, such as the lobate taxa (and Rhizoplaca) is not supported. A more detailed analysis involving Lecanora species with pruinose apothecial discs was carried out with model-based Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (B/MCMC) tree sampling. The results suggest the monophyly of the Lecanora species that are characterized by the presence of chromones. Corticolous as well as saxicolous species are included. Lepraria flavescens is closely related to the Lecanora swartzii subgroup, and the new name Lecanora rouxii nom. nov. is introduced for that species. Other Lecanora species with pruinose discs are riot closely related to the Lecanora rupicola group

SLFs vårexkursion till södra Småland – en rapport.

I april 2016 gick föreningens vårexkursion till trakterna runt Växjö, med några helt skilda miljöer som mål. Här redogör Emil Persson och Ulf Arup för exkursionen som innebar deltagarrekord med god marginal. Första dagen deltog hela 56 personer

New and interesting records of lichens from Pältsan (Mt Bealccan) in northernmost Sweden

Austroplaca subtiroliensis, Gyalidea lecideopsis, Phacographa protoparmeliae, Placynthium pulvinatum and Solorina octospora are reported new to Sweden. Several other rare or rarely collected lichens are also reported: Absconditella annexa, Arthrorhaphis vacillans, Farnoldia micropsis, Gyalidea polyspora, Ionaspis ventosa, Lecanora lecanoricola, L. leptacinella, Lecidea commaculans, Pachyascus lapponicus, Placidiopsis pseudocinerea, Schadonia fecunda, Scytinium aquale and Thelocarpon sphaerosporum

Reduction of gas bubbles and improved critical current density in Bi-2212 round wire by swaging

Bi-2212 round wire is made by the powder-in-tube technique. An unavoidable property of powder-in-tube conductors is that there is about 30% void space in the as-drawn wire. We have recently shown that the gas present in the as-drawn Bi-2212 wire agglomerates into large bubbles and that they are presently the most deleterious current limiting mechanism. By densifying short 2212 wires before reaction through cold isostatic pressing (CIPping), the void space was almost removed and the gas bubble density was reduced significantly, resulting in a doubled engineering critical current density (JE) of 810 A/mm2 at 5 T, 4.2 K. Here we report on densifying Bi-2212 wire by swaging, which increased JE (4.2 K, 5 T) from 486 A/mm2 for as-drawn wire to 808 A/mm2 for swaged wire. This result further confirms that enhancing the filament packing density is of great importance for making major JE improvement in this round-wire magnet conductor.Comment: To be published in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 23, xxxxxx (2013

Lichens from the Vadstena Monastery churchyard – the burial place of Eric Acharius

A list of 120 taxa observed at the Vadstena Monastery churchyard includes some rare species and a few lichenicolous fungi. Lecanora semipallida is reported from the province Östergötland [Ostrogothia] for the first time

Is Rhizoplaca (Lecanorales, lichenized Ascomycota) a monophyletic genus?

Rhizoplaca Zopf is a genus characterized by an umbilicate thallus with an upper and a lower cortex, as well as a cupulate hypothecium. It has been considered to be related to Lecanora Ach., the type genus of the Lecanoraceae and, in particular, to the lobate species of this genus. The phylogeny of Rhizoplaca, the monotypic Arctopeltis thuleana Poelt, and a number of representatives of different groups of Lecanora is studied, using sequences from the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. The results suggest an origin for Rhizoplaca species within the large genus Lecanora. A well-supported monophyletic assemblage includes the umbilicate type species Rhizoplaca melanophthalma (DC.) Leuck. & Poelt, the lobate Lecanora novomexicana H. Magn., and five vagrant Rhizoplaca species. Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca (Sm.) Zopf and Rhizoplaca subdicrepans (Nyl.) R. Sant. form a separate well-supported group and Rhizoplaca peltata (Ram.) Leuck. & Poelt is more closely related to Lecanora muralis (Schreb.) Rabenh. Together with data on secondary chemistry, the results show that the umbilicate thallus with a lower and an upper cortex, as well as apothecia with a cupulate hypothecium found in Rhizoplaca and A. thuleana, have developed several times in independant lineages in Lecanora. The thallus morphology in lecanoroid lichens is highly variable and does not necessarily reflect phylogenetic relationships

Mark- och stenlevande lavar i naturskyddade områden i Hallands län.

Abstract is not availabl