Forcing her way through the ostiole, she often loses her wings and most of her antennae. To facilitate her passage through the ostiole, the underside of the female's head is covered with short spines that provide purchase on the walls of the ostiole. In depositing her eggs, the female also deposits pollen she picked up from her original host fig. This pollinates some of the female flowers on the inside surface of the fig and allows them to mature.
|
|
The more wasps that pass through one ostiole, the more likely the wasp will contract F. moniliforme.
|
|
Formation of the syconium begins with the initial growth of bracts, which curve to form a receptacle. When the outer bracts meet, they form the ostiole by interlock. Syconia may also develop lateral, basal, or peduncular bracts. There is a relationship between the shape of the ostiole and the morphology of the pollinating wasp.
|
|
Some wasps can carry a disease that is carried by F. carica trees. This disease is a fungus called Fusarium moniliforme, or fig endosepsis. The wasps carry this disease on their wings and body. Because the fungus grows on the ostiole, the fungus is transmitted to the wasps' bodies when the wasp emerges from the syconium through the ostiole.
|
|
Lophiostoma was formally established by Cesati and De Notaris (1863) and lectotypified by L. macrostomum. The name of Lophiostoma meaning small crested mouth/door in Latin, which refer to the characteristic shape of the slitlike ostiole of the genus. Latin: ' <, small crest + -' <, mouth or <, door both referring to the pore or opening, usually at the top of diverse reproductive organs, here in the form of an ostiole.
|
|
The ascocarp are usually flaskshaped or pearshaped (piriform), 0,2-0,6 mm (200-600 µm) wide, black of color and with a smooth surface without excrescence. The shape of the top of the perithecium called ostiole has a characteristic slitlike opening. They grow either on very top of the substrate with most of its whole ascocarp on the top or with only the ostiole sticking through and the rest of the fruitbody below the surface. There are many species of ascomycetes that form fruitbodies alike those of Lophiostoma found both in class Dothidemycetes and Sordariomycetes, but the slitlike and somewhat oblong opening of the ostiole are characteristic but not exclusive.
|
|
Astegopteryx soldiers effectively defend their subgall by plugging the ostiole nearly completely with their sclerotic, spiny heads, which are very likely to have evolved for that purpose.
|
|
The plants are dioecious with spermatrangial branchlets borne near the apices of the branches. Cystocarps are globular with a small ostiole. Tetrasporangia are arranged in short lateral branches.
|
|
The plants are dioecious, Spermatangial branchlets are borne near the tips of the branches. Cystocarps with a wide ostiole develop and Tetrasporangia appear as a spiral in the branches.
|
|
D. rabiei has a spherical punctiform and membranous pyrenium, at first lutescent then opening to a rounded black ostiole. It has numerous elliptical and hyaline spores or varying size.
|
|
The roughly spherical to ellipsoidal leathery fruit bodies (ascomata) are 120–300 μm high by 150–350 μm wide, with a short neck, and an ostiole (opening). The neck is 15–50 μm high, 42–70 μm in diameter, cylindrical to conical, and dark brown. The ascomata are immersed in the hard cortex of the host plant, with bases embedded in the pith. The ascomata are light brown in color, but darker around the ostiole.
|
|
The plants are dioecious. Spermatangia are borne in loose clusters in clusters. The cystocarps are ovoid or round or slightly urceolate with a large ostiole. The tetrasporangia occur spiral series in the branches.
|
|
The earthstar fungus Myriostoma coliforma has multiple ostioles through which spores are released. An ostiole is a small hole or opening through which algaeFletcher, R.L. 1987. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 3 Fucophyceae (Phaeophyceae) Part 1 p.
|
|
Flowers are entirely contained within an enclosed structure. Their only connection with the outside is through a small pore called ostiole. Monoecious figs like F. maxima have both male and female flowers within the syconium. Female flowers mature first.
|
|
Figs have complicated inflorescences called syconia. Flowers are entirely contained within an enclosed structure. Their only connection with the outside is through a small pore called ostiole. Monoecious figs like F. aurea have both male and female flowers within the syconium.
|
|
Its conidiomata are stromatic and pycnidial; mycelium is uniloculate, up to in diameter, non- papillate and with a central ostiole. Its paraphyses are hyaline, cylindrical and thin-walled. Conidiophores are absent in this species. Conidiogenous cells are holoblastic and also hyaline.
|
|
Female flowers mature first. Once mature, they produce a volatile chemical attractant. Female wasps squeeze their way through the ostiole into the interior of the syconium. Inside the syconium, they pollinate the flowers, lay their eggs in some of them, and die.
|
|
Its conidiomata are stromatic and pycnidial; its mycelium being uniloculate and non-papillate, with a central ostiole. Paraphyses are hyaline and cylindrical. Conidiophores are absent in this species. Its conidiogenous cells are holoblastic and also hyaline, while its conidia are aseptate and ellipsoid.
|
|
The Kew Series with a narrow ostiole from which carpospores are released. The tetraspores occur in spiral series resulting from a simultaneous division into 4 equal spores.Irvine, L. M. 1983. p.101 Seaweeds of the British Isles Volume 1 Rhodophyta Part 2A Cryptonemiales (sensu stricto) Palmeriales, Rhodymeniales.
|
|
Its conidiomata are stromatic and pycnidial; mycelium uniloculate, up to 950μm in size, being non-papillate with a central ostiole. Its paraphyses are hyaline and cylindrical. Conidiophores are absent in this species. Its conidiogenous cells are holoblastic and smooth, while its conidia are aseptate and cylindrical.
|
|
Its conidiomata are stromatic and pycnidial; its mycelium are uniloculate, up to 980μm in size, being non-papillate with a central ostiole. Its paraphyses are cylindrical and thin-walled, while conidiophores are absent. Its conidiogenous cells are holoblastic and smooth, while the conidia are aseptate and subglobose.
|
|
Later, the fungus will produce mycelial mats of stroma and mycelial pegs. Stroma mats will produce uni- or multilocular pycnidia. Inside the pycnidia are branched and unbranched conidiophores with two-celled pycniospores, which later are ejected from the pycnidial ostiole. Additionally, the stroma will produce a peg of interwoven mycelium.
|
|
Trophozoites encyst due to unfavorable conditions. Factors that induce cyst formation include a lack of food, overcrowding, desiccation, accumulation of waste products, and cold temperatures. When conditions improve, the amoeba can escape through the pore, or ostiole, seen in the middle of the cyst. N. fowleri has been found to encyst at temperatures below .
|
|
Two taxa, the corallines and Hildenbrandiaceae, bear conceptacles, although the striking difference between their formation indicates that the conceptacles are not homologous. Similar structures also exist: cryptostomata are similar to conceptacles but differ having only hairs and are sterile; caecostomata, are found only in Fucus distichus, in these the ostiole becomes blocked during development.
|
|
Asexual stage: Pycnidia are rarely observed in nature. They are 70-176 μm in diameter, globose to pear-shaped, and develop superficially or partly submerged. The wall is thin and fragile and is yellow to brown, with a short ostiole. Pycnidiospores are 1.4-3.2 x 1.0-1.6 μm, spherical or ellipsoidal, hyaline, and nonseptate.
|
|
Pentane extracts from figs which are in their receptive- phase will attract B. psenes from at least 5 meters. Upon sensing these signals from a specific syconium, the wasp will approach that fig. The wasps assess the figs before entrance. They do this by holding up their heads and antennae next to the opening of the syconium (the ostiole).
|
|
A brown pseudoparenchyma covers the top of immature ascomata and rips apart at maturity; the tips of the pseudoparaphyses extend into the ostiole. The peridium is 9–13 μm thick, made of 4–5 layers of ellipsoidal cells, occluded by melanin, especially around the ostiole, to form a textura angularis—a parenchyma-like tissue of densely packed cells that appear angular in cross section. The hamathecium (a term referring to all hyphae developing between asci of the hymenium) is dense, containing many septate, and branched; the pseudoparaphyses anastomose in a gelatinous matrix. The asci measure 75–90 by 13–16 μm, with a short stalk; they are eight-spored (the spores are arranged in two or three parallel rows), cylindrical, bitunicate (two- layered), thick-walled, and lack any specialized apparatus at the tip.
|
|
Aphid gall on Ulmus minorThe aphid Astegopteryx sp. exhibits a head-plugging defense by forming a banana-bunch shaped gall, consisting of several subgalls, on Styrax benzoin. The soldier aphids of Astegopteryx are characterized by their sclerotic, protruded heads, covered in many spine-like setae. Several soldiers cooperate with one another to plug the ostiole of the subgall, utilizing their specialized morphology.
|
|
The actual attractive substances come from the ostiole. If a wasp detects the signal, it will lower its antennae and will search for the entrance to the fig. Both smell and taste also help actual entrance into a fig once the desired fig has been located. If the wasp does not detect a signal, it will not enter the fig.
|
|
Wasps from the three subfamilies Agaoninae, Kradibiinae and Tetrapusiinae are pollinating fig wasps. On the other hand, Sycophaginae are parasites of the Ficus, developing in the fruits after other wasps have pollinated them. Nevertheless, some species in the genus Sycophaga have a controversial status; as they enter the fig by its ostiole, they possibly bring pollen inside the fig and might pollinate it.
|
|
The green, bract-lined ostiole, below, admits wasp pollinators. A syconium is the type of inflorescence borne by figs (genus Ficus), formed by an enlarged, fleshy, hollow receptacle with multiple ovaries on the inside surface.Ficus: The Remarkable Genus Of Figs In essence, it is really a fleshy stem with a number of flowers, so it is considered both a multiple and accessory fruit.
|
|
The base of the puffball is thick, and has internal chambers. It is initially white, but turns yellow, olive, or brownish in age. The reticulate pattern resulting from the rubbed-off spines is less evident on the base. In maturity, the exoperidium at the top of the puffball sloughs away, revealing a pre-formed hole (ostiole) in the endoperidium, through which the spores can escape.
|
|
The fertilized female wasp enters the fig through the scion, which has a tiny hole in the crown (the ostiole). She crawls on the inflorescence inside the fig and pollinates some of the female flowers. She lays her eggs inside some of the flowers and dies. After weeks of development in their galls, the male wasps emerge before the females wasps do through holes they produce by chewing the galls.
|
|
D. bryoniae is an Ascomycota fungus. In spring, asexual fruiting bodies called pycnidia and sexual fruiting bodies called perithecia are formed from last year’s infected plant debris. Pycnidia are flask-shaped structures that house asexual conidia which are readily released from pycnidia through the ostiole when enough moisture is present. Perithecia are also flask-shaped, but they are sexual fruiting bodies which give rise to bitunicate asci that contain 8 ascospores.
|
|
Adults enter through the fig ostiole, a narrow, bract-lined passage, then pollinate and attempt to oviposit on the flowers. Flower ovules that receive an egg become galled and the larvae consume the gall tissue. Pollinated flowers missed by the wasps produce one seed each. The adult offspring emerge from the gall and mate in the fig, before the winged female wasps disperse, carrying the flower pollen with them.
|
|
The tight ostiolar enclosure at the apex of syconia makes them highly pollinator-specific. When receptive to pollen, the ostiole slightly loosens, allowing the highly specialized wasps to enter through it. The wasps lose their wings in the process, and once inside they pollinate female flowers as they lay their eggs in some ovules, which then form galls. The wasps then die and larvae develop in the galls, while seeds develop in the pollinated flowers.
|
|
Collariella bostrychodes is a fungal decomposer of lignin and carbohydrate in the family Chaetomiaceae commonly found in soil and dung. The fungus is distinguished by a darkened collar-like ostiole around the ostiolar pore, giving the fungus its name. The fungus is highly variable in shape and form, giving raise to the belief that there are two subclades in the species. The ascospores range from lemon-shaped to nearly spherical with slightly pointed ends.
|
|
C. elatum has a homothallic mating system. The perithecia are superficial, usually mature in 13 to 20 days, and are 280–440 μm high with a diameter of 255–380 μm. They may appear greenish in color under reflected light with a round/oval-like shape and have an ostiole that is sparsely covered in white/buff aerial hyphae. The perithecial wall is made of brown interwoven hyphae or tightly packed pseudoparenchyma.
|
|
The whitish to greyish-brown fruitbodies of Disciseda bovista are roughly spherical, measuring in diameter and tall. The base of mature fruitbodies is cushioned by a thick pad of mycelium encrusted with soil and plant debris. There is an irregularly shaped (and often torn) opening (ostiole) at the top of the fruitbody, usually 1–2 mm in diameter. The inside of the fruitbody contains the brown gleba, which is initially cottony before becoming powdery after the spores mature.
|
|
The peristome is made of radially arranged fibrils that clump together at the apex in groups of unequal length to form an opening that appears jagged or torn. The circular area bordering the peristome is a paler color. Spores are thought to be dispersed by the wind sucking them out when it blows over the hole, or when falling raindrops hit the flexible endoperidium, creating a puff of air that forces the spores through the ostiole.
|
|
Perithecia of Nectria Perithecium: These are flask shaped structures opening by a pore or ostiole (short papilla opening by a circular pore) through which the ascospores escape. The ostiolar canal may be lined by hair-like structures called periphyses. The unitunicate asci are usually cylindrical in shape, borne on a stipe (stalk), released from a pore, developed from the inner wall of the perithecium and arise from a basal plectenchyma-centrum. Examples are members of Sphaeriales and Hypocreales.
|
|
Closer to the locule, the cells become more hyaline (translucent) and thin-walled; it is from this region that the pseudoparaphyses originate. The hamathecium (a term referring to all hyphae that develop between asci of the hymenium) is made of branched pseudoparaphyses measuring 3–6 μm in diameter. These pseudoparaphyses are embedded in a gelatinous matrix and anastomose above the asci, tapering at the tip to a length of about 1.5 μm while reaching into the ostiole.
|
|
The leathery aquamarine fruit bodies, or ascomata, of A. speciosa are roughly spherical, measuring 225–345 μm high and 240–360 μm in diameter. The ascomata have a long neck 165–345 μm long by 60–110 μm wide; the neck and lower part of the spherical head are immersed under a hard cortex. The heads have an ostiole (opening) that appears as a small dot on the culm surface. The ascomata contain paraphyses, which are unbranched hyphae that line the inner cavity.
|
|
The winged female wasps can fly over long distances before finding another fig to oviposit in it, while the male dies after chewing a hole. As the fig is closed by a tight ostiole, the female wasps have developed adaptations to enter. First, the mandibles of the female wasps have developed specialized mandibular appendages to help them crawl into the figs. These appendages are adapted to the host fig species, with for instance spiraled ostioles matched by spiral mandibular appendages.
|
|
Lophiostoma compressum from Oslo Herbarium by Mathias Andreasen "Lophiostomataceae of Norway" The fruit body of the sexual reproduction (teleomorph) are characterized as having immersed to erumpent ascocarp with a slitlike ostiole; unequal thickness of peridium, which is broader laterally at the base. The shape of asci are mostly clavate and their morphology are bitunicate. Ascospores are 1- to several septate, hyaline to dark brown ascospores with terminal appendages or mucous sheath. The genus does also reproduce asexually (anamorph), creating conidia and conidiospores.
|
|
Fruit bodies are oval to spherical to pear- shaped, and typically in diameter with a white or light-colored thin and fragile exoperidum (outer layer of the peridium). Depending on the species, the exoperidium in a young specimen may be smooth, granular, or finely echinulate. This exoperidium sloughs off at maturity to expose a smooth endoperidium with a single apical pore (ostiole). The fruit bodies may be attached to the ground by fine rhizomorphs that may appear like a small cord.
|
|
In the cultivated fig, there are also asexual mutants. Fig trees either produce hermaphrodite fruit known as caprifigs, or female figs; only the female figs are palatable to humans. In exchange for a safe place for their eggs and larvae, fig wasps help pollinate the ficus by crawling inside the tiny hole in the apex of the fig, called the ostiole, without knowing whether they crawled into a caprifig or a fig. If the female wasp crawls into the caprifig, she can successfully lay her eggs and die.
|
|
Although commonly called a fruit, the synconium is botanically an infructescence, a type of multiple fruit. The small fig flowers and later small single-seeded (true) fruits line its interior surface. A small opening or ostiole, visible on the middle of the fruit, is a narrow passage that allows the specialized fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes to enter the inflorescence and pollinate the flowers, after which each fertilized ovule (one per flower, in its ovary) develops into a seed. At maturity, these 'seeds' (actually single-seeded fruits) line the inside of each fig.
|
|
Arched earthstar found growing under an oak in southern California The immature fruit body is roughly spherical in shape, typically in diameter, and dark brown in color. At maturity, the exoperidium (outer layer) splits into four to five rays which curve backwards so as to elevate the fruit body and raise the spore sac for optimal spore dispersal; the tips of the rays remain attached to a basal cup. The spore sac contains an ostiole, a small opening near the apex. The mature fruiting body may be up to in diameter and tall.
|
|
The fruit (syconia occur in the leaf axils, are globular, and up to 21 mm long and 21 mm in diameter, and they too are lightly rough to the touch. The ostiole protrudes into a crown with numerous ciliolate bracts (bracts with "eyelashes"), and is green to yellowish green at maturity. The peduncle is 21 mm long, 0.6-1.0 mm in diameter. There are three bracts at the base of up to 4 mm in length, with appressed glassy hairs, and the margins have minute hairs (cilia) which persist.
|
|
The puffed spores are ejected from the ostiole at a velocity of about 100 cm/second to form a centimeter-tall cloud one-hundredth of a second after impact. A single puff like this can release over a million spores. Common puffbal (Lycoperdon perlatum The spores are spherical, thick-walled, covered with minute spines, and measure 3.5–4.5 μm in diameter. The capillitia (threadlike filaments in the gleba in which spores are embedded) are yellow-brown to brownish in color, lack septae, and measure 3–7.5 μm in diameter.
|
|
The ascomata, roughly spherical to cylindrical in shape, may be either embedded in or on the material to which the fruit body is attached. Atop the ascomata is a small rounded process with an opening (an ostiole) through which ascospores may be released. The brown- to black-colored ascomata can be either leathery (coriaceous) or dark-colored and readily broken (carbonaceous). The internal structure of the ascomata, the centrum, is at first filled with a transparent pseudoparenchyma (a type of tissue made of hyphae that are twisted and matted together) dissolves upon reaching maturity.
|
|
Lophiostoma possesses typical characters of Lophiostomataceae. Lophiostoma is morphologically a well-studied genus (Chesters and Bell, 1970; Holm and Holm, 1988; Barr, 1990; Yuan and Zhao, 1994), and currently it comprises about 30 species (Tanaka and Harada, 2003). The crest-like apex is not considered to be a stable character and varies considerably even in the same specimen (Chesters and Bell, 1970; Holm and Holm, 1988). Previously anything with a lophiostomataceous, crest-like ostiole was usually placed in Lophiostoma without considering of other characters (Tanaka and Harada 2003, Tanaka and Hosoya 2008, Hirayama et al.
|
|
This species' mycelium is densely produced from all of its orifices and sutures; it is initially a silky white, becoming a ginger colour. Its stromata is single, produced from a dorsal pronotum measuring between and in length, which is cylindrical, dark brown at its base, and pinkish in the fertile upper part. The ascomata are immersed and flask-shaped, measuring up to , including a short ostiole. Its asci are 8-spored, hyaline and cylindrical, while the ascospores are multiserriate and vermiform; its apex is acute, with a rounded base.
|
|
F. rubiginosa is exclusively pollinated in a symbiotic relationship with Pleistodontes imperialis, a species of fig wasp. Biologist Eleanor Haine and colleagues analysed the DNA of the wasp across the fig's range and determined four cryptic lineages forming what they term the P. imperialis species complex. They diverge to a greater degree than some distinct wasp species, yet form a monophyletic group; this indicates that the wasp lineages have split without a change of host. Fertilised female wasps enter the receptive 'fig' (the syconium) through a tiny hole at the crown (the ostiole).
|
|
The syconium is thought to have first evolved 83 million years ago in the CretaceousDatwyler, S. L. and G. D. Weiblen, "On the origin of the fig: phylogenetic relationships of Moraceae from ndhF sequences". American Journal of Botany, 2004. 91(5): p. 767–777. from an entomophilic clade including tribe Castilleae and genus Ficus, as the bracts protecting the inflorescence tightened to form the ostiole, greatly increasing the pollinator specificity of the plant and initiating a long and complex history of coevolution between figs and their pollinating wasps (agaonids).
|
|
A common fig fruit Cut through of a ripe common fig Many fig species are grown for their fruits, though only Ficus carica is cultivated to any extent for this purpose. A fig "fruit" is a type of multiple fruit known as a syconium, derived from an arrangement of many small flowers on an inverted, nearly closed receptacle. The many small flowers are unseen unless the fig is cut open. The fruit typically has a bulbous shape with a small opening (the ostiole) at the outward end that allows access to pollinators.
|
|
The pollinating wasps are part of an obligate nursery pollination mutualism with the fig tree, while the non-pollinating wasps feed off the plant without benefiting it. The life cycles of the two groups, however, are very similar. Though the lives of individual species differ, a typical pollinating fig wasp life cycle is as follows. At the beginning of the cycle, a mature female pollinator wasp enters the immature "fruit" (actually a stem- like structure known as a syconium) through a small natural opening (the ostiole) and deposits her eggs in the cavity.
|
|
In young puffballs, the internal contents, the gleba, is white and firm, but turns brown and powdery as the spores mature. The gleba contains minute chambers that are lined with hymenium (the fertile, spore-bearing tissue); the chambers collapse when the spores mature. Mature puffballs release their powdery spores through the ostiole when they are compressed by touch or falling raindrops. A study of the spore release mechanism in L. pyriforme using high-speed schlieren photography determined that raindrops of 1 mm diameter or greater, including rain drips from nearby trees, were sufficient to cause spore discharge.
|
|
The syconium is an urn-shaped receptacle which contains between 50 and 7000 (depending on the species) highly simplified uniovulate flowers or florets on its inner surface. It is closed off from most organisms by the ostiole, fringed by scale-like bracts. Syconia can be monoecious or functionally dioecious: the former contain female flowers with variable style length and few male flowers, and produce seeds and pollen. The latter have male and female forms in different plants: seed figs contain female flowers with long styles and produce seeds; gall figs contain female flowers with short styles and male flowers and produce pollen.
|
|
Once mature, they produce a volatile chemical attractant which is recognised by female wasps belonging to the species Tetrapus americanus. Female wasps of this species are about long and are capable of producing about 190 offspring. Female fig wasps arrive carrying pollen from their natal tree and squeeze their way through the ostiole into the interior of the syconium. The syncomium bears 500–600 female flowers arranged in multiple layers - those that are closer to the outer wall of the fig have short pedicels and long styles, while those that are located closer to the interior of the chamber have long pedicels and short styles.
|
|
The fungus' imperfectly globose ascomata range from 180-300 μm in diameter containing a short broad neck and express strong pigmentation in the upper region. Their two-celled ascospores are arranged uniseriately with one cell conspicuously bulging featuring dark brown patches. The authors did not observe an asexual or anamorphic state, however the sexual colonies grow very slowly on cherry decoction agar, reaching 50 mm after 30 days at 21 °C with no growth found when placed in the same medium at 30 °C. Z. ebriosa also exhibit cylindrical asci and contain ostioles atypical of the Zopfiella however, within the species, variation has been found when discussing ostiole presence.
|
|
The immature fruit body is typically in diameter, and up to broad (Roody gives a larger value here, up to 11.5 cm) after the rays have spread out. It is composed of a roughly spherical to egg-shaped structure, the endoperidium, topped by an opening, the ostiole, covered by fragments of tissue that form a small pointed beak (a peristome). The endoperidium is typically lacking any sort of stem (it is sessile) grayish brown to "wood brown" when young but light yellow-brown in dried, unopened specimens. The outer tissue layer, the exoperidium, develops splits which radiate from the apex and form between four and eight rays that separate from the endoperidium.
|
|
The berry-like red-pouch fungus, Leratiomyces erythrocephalus, New Zealand The gasteroid fungi form visibly diverse fruit bodies, but in all cases the spores are formed and reach maturity internally. They are not discharged forcibly, as in agarics and most other members of the Basidiomycota, but are released passively in a variety of different ways. In the puffballs, which include the genera Lycoperdon, Bovista, and Calvatia, spores are formed within spherical to pestle-shaped fruit bodies and are released either by wind (as the fruit body wears away, exposing the spore mass inside) or by raindrops. In the latter case, the fruit bodies develop an ostiole (apical hole) through which spores are puffed out by the pressure of raindrops falling on the fruit body surface.
|
|
However, no correlation has been established between precipitation intensity and ascospore density, indicating that ascospores are not actively dispersed by rain splashes; rather, they are forcibly ejected into air currents, granted by the long beak and narrow restricted ostiole of the perithecium and the expulsion of spores from high internal pressure caused by a swollen, wetted perithecium. Spores are not released until the first precipitating event that causes the perithecium to swell; afterwards, subsequent precipitation immediately releases spores, but the maximum rate of ascospore release is not obtained until 3 to 5 hours of precipitation. This indicates that consistent precipitating events will likely lead to a greater dispersal of spores. The greatest likelihood of ascospore release occurs near bud-break (mid-March) when major storms are most prevalent.
|
|
The fig fruit is an enclosed inflorescence, sometimes referred to as a syconium, an urn-like structure lined on the inside with the fig's tiny flowers. The unique fig pollination system, involving tiny, highly specific wasps, known as fig wasps that enter via ostiole these subclosed inflorescences to both pollinate and lay their own eggs, has been a constant source of inspiration and wonder to biologists. Finally, three vegetative traits together are unique to figs. All figs possess a white to yellowish latex, some in copious quantities; the twig has paired stipules or a circular stipule scar if the stipules have fallen off; and the lateral veins at the base of the leaf are steep, forming a tighter angle with the midrib than the other lateral veins, a feature referred to as "triveined".
|
|
PycnidiaPycnidium (pycnidia plural) is a small flash-shaped structure (300–450 µm wide near the base in N. homaleoides) that produces conidia, which escape through an opening (ostiole) at the top and function in reproduction, asexually or sexuallyBungartz, F. 2002. Morphology and anatomy of conidia-producing structures, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert 1: 35–40 are prominent on the upper parts of branches, and appear to be among the largest in the genus, but comparative measurements are not available for all species of Niebla. Niebla homaleoides is related to the depsidone species within the genus by the absence of triterpenes, most closely to salazinic-acid species by the presence of an unknown, possibly scabrosin derivative. This lichen chemotype is found in the related Niebla flabellata, Niebla josecuervoi, and Niebla marinii.
|
|
Vermilacinia nylanderi is classified in the subgenus Cylindricaria in which it is distinguished from related species by the thallus divided into numerous narrow tubular rugose branches, by the abundant fertile pycnidia,Pycnidium (pycnidia plural) is a small flash-shaped structure (200–300 µm wide near the base) that produces conidia, which escape through an opening (ostiole) at the top and function in reproduction, asexually or sexually and by lichen substances of zeorin and (-)-16-hydroxykaurane, occasionally with unknowns. The species is similar to V. corrugata which lacks (-)-16-hydroxykaurane. Vermilacinia leopardina, which has the same lichen substances, differs in its shiny cortex and sterile pycnidia that appear as irregularly shaped black spots and regularly shaped transverse bands. Pycnidia in Vermilacinia nylanderi are not always conspicuous, especially in the field, because they are often immersed in the cortex.
|
|
Niebla tesselata is distinguished by the thallus divided into tubular branches from a pale rusty orange pigmented holdfast, the branches generally narrowly conical, simple, densely covered by black dot-like pycnidiaPycnidium (pycnidia plural) is a small flash-shaped structure (200–350 µm long) that produces conidia, which escape through an opening (ostiole) at the top and function in reproduction, asexually or sexually, appearing dot- like from surface viewBungartz, F. 2002. Morphology and anatomy of conidia- producing structures, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert 1: 35–40 positioned centrally on areolae, and by containing sekikaic acid, with triterepenes. The species (N. tesselata) is unique in the genus for its simple branches and for the central development of pycnidia on the raised areolate surface, as opposed to developing along the cortical ridges as generally recognized for the genus Niebla.
|
|
Black dot-like pycnidiaPycnidium (pycnidia plural) is a small flash-shaped structure (generally 200–350 µm long in Niebla) that produces conidia, which escape through an opening (ostiole) at the top and function in reproduction, asexually or sexuallyBungartz, F. 2002. Morphology and anatomy of conidia-producing structures, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert 1: 35–40 appear inconspicuous and sparsely distributed except on upper branches. Apothecia appear terminal and subterminal on branches, often clustered, especially thalli on Santa Cruz Island. Similar species are Niebla rugosa, distinguished by the lichen substance of divaricatic acid and by the ladder like transverse ridges between margins and by the acute marginal ridges, Niebla podetiaforma, distinguished by finely reticulate cortical surface between margins, Niebla contorta, distinguished by the broadly rounded terminal lobes, and Niebla undulata that differs in having smooth recessed cortical areas between ridges.
|
|
The roughly spherical leathery fruit bodies (ascomata) are 170–240 μm high by 200–300 μm wide, and are almost completely embedded in the host tissue. The ascomata have ostioles (openings) at the top, and are arranged in small dark brown colonies with light grey patches where the cuticle is detached from the plant epidermis. There is a dark brown mycelium in the epidermal cells surrounding the ostioles, making a pseudostroma—a stroma in which fungal cells and remnants of host tissue are mixed. Although the ascomata have no necks, they do have black bristles (measuring 28–36 by 2.5–4 μm) that surround and obstruct the ostiole. The peridium is 10–13 μm thick, and made of 2–3 layers of roughly spherical or ellipsoidal brown cells with large lumina that form a textura angularis—a parenchyma-like tissue of very densely packed cells that appear angular in longitudinal section.
|
|
Niebla infundibula is characterized by a large massive rigid thallus divided into sub[terete] branches spreading from a holdfast, to 10 cm high and 15 cm across above the base, and further recognized by containing divaricatic acid and by the large pycnidia.Pycnidium (pycnidia plural) is a small flash-shaped structure (300–450 µm long near the base in N. infundibula) that produces conidia, which escape through an opening (ostiole) at the top and function in reproduction, asexually or sexuallyBungartz, F. 2002. Morphology and anatomy of conidia-producing structures, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert 1: 35–40 that are prominent on the upper parts of branches, appearing larger than other species in the genus; however, comparative measurements were not provided for all species. The cortex is glossy and moderately thick, 75–125 µm thick. The relatively greater mass of the thallus may be due to a thicker glossy layer that is generally absent in many related species (“epicortex”Bowler, P.A. 1981.
|
|