# Wadeana

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{{Short description|Genus of fungi}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=June 2025}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image =
| image_caption =
| taxon = Wadeana
| authority = [Coppins](/source/Brian_John_Coppins) & [P.James](/source/Peter_Wilfred_James) (1978)
| type_species = ''Wadeana dendrographa''
| type_species_authority = ([Nyl.](/source/Nyl.)) Coppins & P.James (1978)
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = ''[W. dendrographa](/source/Wadeana_dendrographa)''<br />
''[W. minuta](/source/Wadeana_minuta)''
}}

'''''Wadeana''''' is a small [genus](/source/genus) of [lichen](/source/lichen)-forming [fungi](/source/fungi) in the [division](/source/division_(taxonomy)) [Ascomycota](/source/Ascomycota). Its to other taxa within the division is unknown (''[incertae sedis](/source/incertae_sedis)''), and it has not yet been placed with certainty into any [class](/source/class_(biology)), [order](/source/order_(biology)), or [family](/source/Family_(taxonomy)). The genus was established in 1978 by the British lichenologists [Brian Coppins](/source/Brian_John_Coppins) and [Peter James](/source/Peter_Wilfred_James), who named it after the veteran naturalist [Arthur Edward Wade](/source/Arthur_Edward_Wade) for his decades of work studying British lichens. These [bark-dwelling lichens](/source/corticolous_lichen) live almost completely hidden within the outer layers of tree bark and produce distinctive crack-like [fruiting bodies](/source/fruiting_bodies) with bright red-brown internal colouring.

==Taxonomy==

''Wadeana'' was erected in 1978 by the British lichenologists [Brian John Coppins](/source/Brian_John_Coppins) and [Peter Wilfred James](/source/Peter_Wilfred_James), who transferred ''Lithographa dendrographa'' (first described by [William Nylander](/source/William_Nylander_(botanist)) in 1864<ref name="Nylander 1864"/>) to serve as the [type species](/source/type_species) and placed the new genus in the family [Patellariaceae](/source/Patellariaceae). The authors named the genus in honour of veteran British field-naturalist [Arthur Edward Wade](/source/Arthur_Edward_Wade),<ref name="Brightman & Seaward 1989"/> acknowledging his six decades of work on the country's lichens. Their paper also introduced a second species, ''W.&nbsp;minuta''; the two species share a bark-dwelling, {{lichengloss|endophloeodal}} thallus with a ''[Trentepohlia](/source/Trentepohlia_(alga))'' photobiont, [ascocarp](/source/ascocarp)s whose internal tissues become suffused with bright red-brown pigment, and unusually multispored asci that hold roughly 100–200 colourless [ascospore](/source/ascospore)s.<ref name="Coppins & James 1978"/>

Coppins and James differentiated ''Wadeana'' from the heterogeneous ''[Lithographa](/source/Lithographa)'' by a suite of {{lichengloss|characters}}: the multispored asci (eight-spored in ''Lithographa''), a {{lichengloss|proper excipule}} lined with {{lichengloss|periphysoid}} filaments that tapers beneath the [hymenium](/source/hymenium), a conspicuous gelatinous matrix around the [paraphyses](/source/paraphyses), and the persistent red-brown pigmentation of the ascocarp tissues; moreover, ''Wadeana'' alone harbours ''Trentepohlia'' algae. These stable differences supported recognition of ''Wadeana'' as a distinct genus, while leaving ''Lithographa'' itself [polyphyletic](/source/polyphyletic) and in need of further revision.<ref name="Coppins & James 1978"/> Despite its otiginal placement in the Patellariaceae, ''Wadeana'' is now considered to be of uncertain classification (''[Incertae sedis](/source/Incertae_sedis)'') in the Ascomycota.<ref name="CoL_CFBLZ"/>

==Description==

''Wadeana'' is a bark-dwelling lichen that hides almost completely within the outer layers of its host. The thallus forms a thin, endophloeodal film intertwined with orange-green ''Trentepohlia'' algae and is often visible only as a faint pale or reddish stain on smooth bark . Its fruit bodies are short, crack-like {{lichengloss|lirellae}}: they begin as narrow slits but soon swell into oval or slightly elongated black fissures framed by a persistent, glossy rim. As the lirellae mature the internal tissues, including the roof ({{lichengloss|epithecium}}), floor ({{lichengloss|hypothecium}}) and spore-bearing layer ([hymenium](/source/hymenium)), become suffused with a vivid red-brown pigment that intensifies with age and is especially striking when sections are examined in water; the colour shifts to fuscous brown in [potassium hydroxide](/source/potassium_hydroxide) but brightens again in [nitric acid](/source/nitric_acid). No [asexual reproductive](/source/asexual_reproduction) structures ([pycnidia](/source/pycnidia) or [soralia](/source/soralia)) have been observed.<ref name="Coppins & James 1978"/>

Microscopically, the outer wall ({{lichengloss|excipulum}}) is thick at the sides but tapers beneath the hymenium and is lined with minute {{lichengloss|periphysoid}} filaments; its gelatinised [hypha](/source/hypha)e give it a somewhat {{lichengloss|cartilaginous}} appearance. The jelly-embedded [paraphyses](/source/paraphyses) are richly branched and often link together, while the asci are {{lichengloss|clavate}}-[ellipsoid](/source/ellipsoid) and unusually crowded with roughly 100–200 spores each. Spores are {{lichengloss|simple}}, colourless and extremely small: in ''W.&nbsp;minuta'' they are usually spherical, 2–3&nbsp;[μm](/source/%CE%BCm) across, whereas in the larger-fruited type species ''W.&nbsp;dendrographa'' they are ellipsoid, 5–8 × 3–4&nbsp;μm.<ref name="Coppins & James 1978"/>

==Habitat and distribution==

Both recognised species of ''Wadeana'' live buried inside the outer bark ({{lichengloss|corticolous}} and {{lichengloss|endophloeodal}}) of mature, broad-leaved trees. They are most conspicuous on rough, neutral to mildly base-rich trunks of [ash](/source/ash), [elm](/source/elm) and [oak](/source/oak) where a film of their orange partner-alga (''Trentepohlia'') is present. The lichens tolerate slight nutrient enrichment (hypertrophication), so they also survive on roadside or parkland trees that receive a little extra fertilising dust. Field records show a scattered but distinctly Atlantic pattern in Britain: specimens have been collected from Surrey's [Albury Park](/source/Albury_Park), through the [Lake District](/source/Lake_District) and [Merioneth](/source/Merioneth), to Highland sites such as [Crieff](/source/Crieff), [Kinloch Rannoch](/source/Kinloch_Rannoch), [Invermoriston](/source/Invermoriston) and [Loch Arkaig](/source/Loch_Arkaig), indicating a wide north–south span yet overall rarity. The genus therefore appears tied to humid, relatively unpolluted [woodland](/source/woodland)s and veteran park trees in north-west Europe, and is likely under-recorded owing to its minute fruit-bodies and almost invisible thallus.<ref name="Coppins & James 1978"/>

==See also==
* [List of Ascomycota genera ''incertae sedis''](/source/List_of_Ascomycota_genera_incertae_sedis)

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="Brightman & Seaward 1989">{{cite journal |last1=Brightman |first1=F.H. |last2=Seaward |first2=M. R.D. |title=Arthur Edward Wade Msc FLS |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=21 |issue=4 |year=1989 |pages=379–381 |doi=10.1017/S0024282989000629 |doi-access=free|bibcode=1989ThLic..21..379B }}</ref>

<ref name="CoL_CFBLZ">{{Catalogue of Life |id=CFBLZ |title=''Wadeana'' |access-date=27 June 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="Coppins & James 1978">{{cite journal |last1=Coppins |first1=B.J. |last2=James |first2=P.W. |title=New or Interesting British Lichens II |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=10 |issue=2 |year=1978 |doi=10.1017/S0024282978000298 |pages=179–207|bibcode=1978ThLic..10..179C }}</ref>

<ref name="Nylander 1864">{{cite journal |last=Nylander |first=W. |year=1864 |title=Graphidei et Lecanorei quidam europaei novi |trans-title=Some new European Graphidei and Lecanorei |journal=Flora |volume=47 |pages=487–491 |language=la |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55953}}</ref>

}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q10719012}}

Category:Ascomycota
Category:Enigmatic Ascomycota taxa
Category:Lichen genera
Category:Taxa named by Brian John Coppins
Category:Taxa named by Peter Wilfred James
Category:Taxa described in 1978

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wadeana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadeana) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadeana?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.