Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Semester of Degree Completion
1985
Thesis Director
Wesley C. Whiteside
Abstract
An examination by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) of herbarium material and collections from Missouri and Arkansas of the cup-shaped lichen Cladonia cryptochlorophaea Asah. was used to determine the North American distribution of the population containing the para-depside atranorin. This atranorin containing variant was originally reported by Cunningham (1982) in Coles and Clark Counties of Illinois with further studies by Wilcer (1984) in Illinois, western Indiana and southern Wisconsin.
A total of 181 specimens of Cladonia cryptochlorophaea Asah. were examined for the para-depside atranorin using TLC. Herbarium material was supplied for study from both the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C., and Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois. Specimens collected by the author in the counties of Howell, Ozark, Oregon, and Ripley in southern Missouri and Marion, Fulton, Sharp and Baxter counties in northern Arkansas were also tested. Crystal tests were done to confirm the presence of identified substances.
Cladonia cryptochlorophaea is distributed from Maine to the Carolinas and west to Oklahoma and Minnesota. Of the lichen specimens tested from 25 states, 11 were found to contain atranorin as an accessory substance. Those states were Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Those states whose samples lacked atranorin were Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
A range map was prepared to show the distribution of the atranorin containing variant. The distribution of this chemotype of Cladonia cryptochlorophaea is a predominantly Ozarkian one with most specimens from Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas containing the para-depside. The distribution extends through the Mississippi River Valley as far north as southern Wisconsin and to the east into Ohio. The southern and western limits of the range of the variant are limited by the range of Cladonia cryptochlorophaea. The specimens examined show a decreasing frequency in the occurrence of atranorin as an accessory substance with increasing collection site distance away from the Ozark region.
Recommended Citation
Lock, Paul Raymond, "The North American Distribution of the Cladonia cryptochlorophaea Asah. Population Containing the Para-depside Atranorin as an Accessory Substance" (1985). Masters Theses. 2741.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2741
