Cyanoporina is a fungal genus in the division Ascomycota. The relationship of this taxon to other taxa within the division is unknown (incertae sedis), and it has not yet been placed with certainty into any class, order, or family. The genus is monospecific, containing the single species Cyanoporina granulosa, a crustose lichen found in West Java, Indonesia.
Cyanoporina was circumscribed as a new genus by the Dutch mycologist Pieter Groenhart in 1951. The genus name combines cyano (referring to the blue-green algal photobiont) with -porina (alluding to its similarity to the genus Porina). The specific epithet granulosa alludes to the appearance of the thallus.
The type species, Cyanoporina granulosa, was described in the same publication. The genus was provisionally assigned to the family Pyrenotrichaceae based on its Scytonema-like photobiont, although it differs from other members of this family in several respects.
The thallus of Cyanoporina is crustose, (with the distributed throughout), and granular in appearance. It forms small to large patches growing over mosses, lichens, and detritus on tree bark. The thallus lacks soredia and isidia and is not surrounded by a dark hypothalline line.
The photobiont belongs to the cyanobacterial family Stygonemataceae. The cells are yellowish-green, rounded to angular or crescent-shaped, measuring 8âÂÂ12 üm wide and 10âÂÂ15 üm long. One or more cells are enclosed within a gelatinous, colourless to pale citrine sheath 4âÂÂ6 üm thick.
The fruiting bodies (ascomata) are , which are almost invisible to the naked eye and often covered by thallus granules. The perithecia are roughly spherical, 110âÂÂ130 üm in diameter, pale fulvescent to yellowish, with a wall 10âÂÂ12 üm thick composed of densely interwoven hyphae. No distinct pore was observed.
The asci are cylindrical, thin-walled, 8-spored, measuring 7âÂÂ9 üm wide and 90âÂÂ120 üm long, with a thin, rounded top. Spores are , colourless, 3-septate, , tapering towards the tips, 3âÂÂ4 üm wide and 16âÂÂ20 üm long, with cubic cells. Paraphyses are diffluent (dissolving into a liquid) and only fragments were observed. Pycnidia were not found in the type specimen.
Cyanoporina granulosa was originally collected from the bark of Machilus declinata at an altitude of on Mount Gegerbentang in West Java, Indonesia. It was found growing over mosses, lichens, and detritus.