Heterodermia incana (Physciaceae), a New Record for Russia

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504 Herzogia 30 (2), 2017: 504 –508
Heterodermia incana (Physciaceae), a new record for Russia
Alexander K. Ezhkin* & Felix Schumm
Abstract: Ezhkin, A. K. & Schumm, F. 2017. Heterodermia incana (Physciaceae), a new record for Russia –
Herzogia 30: 504 –508.
We report a new finding of Heterodermia incana, a rare lichen with an otherwise tropical distribution, from Sakhalin
Island in the Russian Far East. It is the northernmost record for Heterodermia incana to date. We provide illustrations
of its morphological features, an occurrence map and results of HPTLC.
Zusammenfassung: Ezhkin, A. K. & Schumm, F. 2017. Heterodermia incana (Physciaceae), ein Neufund für
Russland. – Herzogia 30: 504 –508.
Es wird über einen Neufund von Heterodermia incana von Sakhalin (SE-Russland) berichtet. Es ist der bisher nörd-
lichste Fundort dieser seltenen tropisch verbreiteten Flechte. Wir dokumentieren die morphologischen Merkmale mit
Bildern, das Vorkommen mit einer Karte und die Inhaltsstoffe durch Abbildungen von HPTLC-Platten.
Key words: Physciaceae, Podocarpae, rare lichen, Sakhalin.
Introduction
During research on the lichen mycobiota on southern Sakhalin Island (southern part of the
Russian Far East), we found Heterodermia incana (Stirt.) D.D.Awasthi, a rare lichen species.
It was the first record of this species for Russia. Even though the region is considered as a
boreal zone with dark coniferous and mixed coniferous – deciduous forests, it is rich for spe-
cies of tropical and subtropical elements mostly in communities with high humidity such as,
Heterodermia microphylla (Kurok.) Skorepa and Myelochroa subaurulenta (Nyl.) Elix & Hale
(Ezhkin & Galanina 2014).
Almost all Heterodermia species known from Russia (23 of 24 species including the new
one) occur in the southern part of the Russian Far East (Urbanavichus & Andreev 2010).
The genus Heterodermia Trevis. s. lat. consists of approximately 165 mainly pantropical to
subtropical species (http://www.mycobank.org, accessed: 01 January 2017) with a few spe-
cies extending into temperate or oceanic regions. Our new finding of H. incana represents the
northernmost point registered for the species. Its distributional range displays a wide disjunc-
tion at present. It could be hypothesized that this disjunction resulted from a joint dispersal
of the species to Sakhalin with broad-leaved trees in one of the warm climatic period in the
early Pleistocene when Sakhalin Island was connected with Japan, the Kuriles and the Asian
continent (Bogatov et al. 2006).
* Corresponding author

Herzogia 30 (2), 2017 • Kurzmitteilungen / short communications 505
Fig. 1. Heterodermia incana, upper surface. Bar = 1 mm.
Fig. 2. Heterodermia incana, lower surface. Bar = 1 mm.

506 Herzogia 30 (2), 2017
Fig. 3. HPTLC in solvents A, B’, C. at: atranorin, z: zeorin, L: leucotylin, 1,2,3,4: unknown.
Fig. 4. Map of Heterodermia incana finding points including the last one in Russian Far East (Sakhalin). Bar =
1000 km.
We suspect it could be found in Japan, Korea and some other parts of Russian Far East.
Heterodermia incana is related to the Series Podocarpae (Kurokawa 1962) or the Comosa
group (Mongkolsuk et al. 2015). This group of species is characterized by having a foliose

Herzogia 30 (2), 2017 • Kurzmitteilungen / short communications 507
to subfruticose thallus with typically ascending, spathulate or paddle-shaped lobes and white
marginal rhizines.
Material and methods
The specimen was examined with a Wild M3Z Plan stereomicroscope and an Olympus BH-A
research microscope. Photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 600D digital camera and an
Olympus BX51 light microscope. Identifications were done with the help of published keys
such as Kurokawa (1962) and Mongkolsuk et al. (2015). Natural compounds were charac-
terized by high performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) according to the methods
described in Schumm & Elix (2015). Spot tests were made with 10 % of KOH (K), Ca(ClO)2
(C) and [C6H4(NH2)2] (P).
Results
Heterodermia incana (Stirt.) D.D.Awasthi
Description: Thallus foliose, forming tufts of suberect lobes, irregularly branched, 4 cm wide. Soralia
and isidia on upper surface absent, lobes 1–2 mm wide, upper surface greyish white. Lower surface
arachnoid, white, at the tips partly below the light greenish arachnoid layer. Laminal cilia absent.
Marginal rhizines white, with darkened tips, squarrosely or fruticosely branched. Apothecia not seen
in Russian material (Figs 1, 2).
Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow, C–, KC–, P –; medulla K+ yellow, C–, P + yellow; containing atranorin
(major), zeorin (major), leucotylin (trace), some other terpenes (trace) (Fig. 3). Similar to H. podocar-
pa but without norstictic acid.
Specimen examined: RUSSIA. Sakhalinskiy Oblast’, Sakhalin Island, surroundings of Prigorodnoye village, in
deciduous forest, on bark of Salix caprea L., 22 May 2015, 46°38'57.4''N, 142°58'07.7''E, alt. 206 m, A. Ezhkin
s.n. (SAK 127).
Distribution and habitat: H. incana is also known from Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Java, India, Sri
Lanka, the Comoros Islands and Nepal (Fig. 4) mostly in low and middle elevations not more than
1520 m above sea level in coniferous forests, in lower montane scrubs, on bark of trees (Kurokawa
1962, Awasthi 1973, Awasthi & Singh 1973, Vinayaka & Krishnamurthy 2010, Kumar et al.
2011, Mongkolsuk et al. 2015).
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to Dr. Toby Spribille (Graz) for linguistic assistance and two anonymous reviewers for valuable com-
ments and corrections.
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Manuscript accepted: 13 July 2017.
Communicated by: Christian Printzen
Addresses of the authors
Alexander K. Ezhkin, Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics FEB RAS, Nauki st., 1B,
693022 Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. E-mail: ezhkin@yandex.ru
Felix Schumm, Mozartstraβe 9, 73117 Wangen, Germany. E-mail: fschumm@online.de