Amandinea is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Caliciaceae. Genetic studies indicates that the genus Amandinea and Buellia are the same, although this is not widely accepted.
The genus was originally circumscribed by Maurice Choisy in 1950, with Amandinea coniops assigned as the type species. However, the name was published invalidly because it was not accompanied by a Latin description or diagnosis, a requirement of the nomenclatural rules of the time. Christoph Scheidegger and Helmut Mayrhofer published the genus name validly in 1993. The generic name honours French Madame Amandine Manière, an acquaintance of Choisy.
Amandinea species have a crustose thallus ranging from cracked (rimose) to slightly blistered (bullate). The internal white layer (medulla) is iodine-negative (IâÂÂ), meaning it does not turn blue in the standard iodine test and is therefore non-amyloid. The photosynthetic partner is a green alga, i.e. with small, spherical cells. Sexual fruiting bodies are apothecia with either a margin (rim made of thallus tissue) or a margin (dark, non-thalline rim). These apothecia may be partly sunk into the thallus () or sit on top of it (), with either a broad or narrowed base; the are typically black or nearly so. The tissue beneath the spore layer () is pale to dark brown, sometimes with olive tones.
Inside the apothecia, the is made of paraphysesâÂÂmicroscopic, partitioned threads that run between the spore sacs. These are unbranched or branch only near the tip; the tips are swollen and pigmented, and many bear a dark brown cap. The asci (spore sacs) are club-shaped and of the Lecanora-type; they usually contain eight spores, though four or more than eight may occur. The ascospores are brown and 1-septate (with a single internal cross-wall), sometimes showing a thicker median wall; their surfaces are often finely wrinkled (), a feature that generally requires electron microscopy to see reliably. Asexual reproduction is common via pycnidia (tiny flask-like structures) that produce curved, thread-like conidia up to about 30 üm long. Chemical tests rarely detect secondary metabolites in this genus (norstictic acid is uncommon but occurs in a few species), while most species show no substances detectable by thin-layer chromatography.
, Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accepts 94 species of Amandinea.