Scytinium

Scytinium
Scytinium gelatinosum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Peltigerales
Family: Collemataceae
Genus: Scytinium
(Ach.) Gray (1821)
Type species
Scytenium palmatum
(Huds.) Gray (1821)
Synonyms
  • Collema ††† Scytinium Ach. (1810)
  • Collema sect. Scytenium (Ach.) Bory (1823)
  • Collema sect. Scytinium (Ach.) W.Mann (1825)

Scytinium is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Collemataceae. It has 49 species. These lichens are typically found on basic rocks, soil, and trees, occasionally in association with mosses. In its revised sense, Scytinium includes crustose, squamulose or small foliose jelly-lichens with thalli (lichen bodies) usually only a few millimetres to a few centimetres across. Despite the morphological and ecological diversity within Scytinium, its species share similar ascospore features, such as shape and septation, as well as a small to medium-sized thallus with at least a partial cortex.