Burrowsia, a new genus of lichenized fungi (Caliciaceae), plus the new species B. cataractae and Scoliciosporum fabisporum, from Mpumalanga, South Africa

Abstract

The new genus Burrowsia (Caliciaceae) is proposed to accommodate the new species B. cataractae, which is known from only a single locality in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Burrowsia is characterized by its pigmented, submuriform ascospores and ascus with an apical tube structure, and also by its DNA sequence data that place it outside related buellioid genera. We also describe the new species Scoliciosporum fabisporum, also known from a single locality in Mpumalanga, which differs from all other species of that genus in having distinctive kidney-shaped, 0–1-septate ascospores. It is most closely related to the Northern Hemisphere species S. intrusum, which is here confirmed by molecular data as belonging to this genus in a well-supported Scoliciosporaceae. The potential of the region to yield additional novel lichen taxa is explored