{{Short description|Family of lichens}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=October 2025}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Catillaria_chalybeia_1036033.jpg | image_caption = ''Catillaria chalybeia'', growing on granite in Portugal | taxon = Catillariaceae | authority = Hafellner (1984) | type_genus = ''Catillaria'' | type_genus_authority = A.Massal. (1852) | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = ''Austrolecia''<br> ''Catillaria''<br> ''Placolecis''<br> ''Solenopsora''<br> ''Xanthopsorella'' }}
The '''Catillariaceae''' are a family of crustose lichens in the order Lecanorales. Species of this family have a widespread distribution, especially in temperate areas.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Cannon PF, Kirk PM |title=Fungal Families of the World |publisher=CABI|location=Wallingford|year=2007 |page=54 |isbn=978-0-85199-827-5}}</ref> The family contains five genera and about 130 species, most of which form crusty growths tightly attached to rocks, bark, or soil.
==Taxonomy==
The family was circumscribed by the Austrian lichenologist Josef Hafellner in 1984.<ref name="Hafellner 1984"/>
==Description==
Members of Catillariaceae have a very variable body (thallus). Most are crust-forming lichens that stick tightly to the substrate, sometimes splitting into a network of cracks ({{lichengloss|rimose}}), breaking up into little warts or blocks ({{lichengloss|areolate}}), forming small scales, or spreading with a rosette-like edge ({{lichengloss|placodioid}}). A few are fruticose, meaning they grow as small, branched tufts. In some taxa the thallus is partly sunk into the substrate or so thin that it fades away; lichenicolous species that live on other lichens may lack a thallus altogether. The photosynthetic partner is a simple green alga with small, spherical cells (a {{lichengloss|chlorococcoid}} photobiont).<ref name="Cannon et al. 2025"/>
The fruiting bodies are apothecia, usually brown to black and typically without a frosted coating ({{lichengloss|pruina}}). A rim made from the thallus (the {{lichengloss|thalline margin}}) may be absent from the start, or present when young but later pushed aside as the {{lichengloss|disc}} expands. The true margin of the apothecium (the {{lichengloss|exciple}}) is well developed in most species, at least in young stages; it is made of radiating, branched fungal threads and holds together firmly, including in standard chemical tests used by lichenologists. Inside the disc, the tissue between the spore-bearing sacs (the {{lichengloss|hamathecium}}) consists of straight or only slightly branched threads (paraphyses) whose tips are abruptly swollen and capped with dark brown pigment.<ref name="Cannon et al. 2025"/>
The asci (spore sacs) usually contain eight spores (occasionally up to sixteen) and are cylindrical to club-shaped. They show a characteristic ''Catillaria''-type reaction in the iodine–potassium test used in microscopy: a blue outer coat and a uniformly blue dome at the tip, and in some cases a small clear {{lichengloss|ocular chamber}} is visible at the apex. The ascospores are typically colourless, divided by a single cross-wall (1-septate), and lack any gelatinous outer sheath. Asexual reproductive structures (pycnidia) are common but often hard to see because they are sunk into the thallus; they produce colourless, non-septate conidia (asexual spores) that are ellipsoidal to rod-shaped. The conidia arise from producing cells that may be linked in chains with spores budding from the ends and sides, or arranged in a single layer of broadly flask-shaped cells.<ref name="Cannon et al. 2025"/>
==Genera==
Catillariaceae contains 5 genera and about 130 species.<ref name="CoL_7T2"/> *''Austrolecia'' {{au|Hertel (1984)}}<ref name="Hertel 1984"/> – 1 species *''Catillaria'' {{au|A.Massal. (1852)}} – about 100 species *''Placolecis'' {{au|Trevis. (1857)}} – 5 species *''Solenopsora'' {{au|A.Massal. (1855)}} – 25 species *''Xanthopsorella'' {{au|Kalb & Hafellner (1984)}}<ref name="Hafellner 1984"/> – 1 species
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Cannon et al. 2025">{{cite book |last1=Cannon |first1=P. |last2=Orange |first2=A. |last3=Aptroot |first3=A. |last4=Coppins |first4=B. |last5=Fletcher |first5=A. |last6=Fryday |first6=A. |last7=Sanderson |first7=N. |last8=Simkin |first8=J. |last9=Van den Boom |first9=P. |year=2022 |title=Caliciales: Catillariaceae, including the genera ''Catillaria'' and ''Solenopsora'' |series=Revisions of British and Irish Lichens |volume=59 |page=2 |url=https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/Catillariaceae%20v2.pdf}}{{Open access}}</ref>
<ref name="CoL_7T2">{{Catalogue of Life |id=7T2 |title=''Catillariaceae'' |access-date=16 October 2025}}</ref>
<ref name="Hafellner 1984">{{cite journal |last1=Hafellner |first1=Josef |year=1984 |title=Studien in Richtung einer natürlichen Gliederung der Sammelfamilien Lecanoracae und Lecideaceae |journal=Beihefte zur Nova Hedwigia |volume=79 |pages=241–371 |language=de}}</ref>
<ref name="Hertel 1984">{{cite book |last1=Hertel |first1=Hannes |year=1984 |title=Über saxicole, lecideoide Flechten der Subantarktis |series=Beihefte zur Nova Hedwigia |publisher=J. Cramer |volume=79 |pages=399–499 |language=de}}</ref>
}}
{{commons category|Catillariaceae}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2942953}}
Category:Lecanoromycetes families Category:Lecanorales Category:Lichen families Category:Taxa named by Josef Hafellner Category:Taxa described in 1984