The Spatial Structure of Lichen Hypogymnia physodes (L.) Nyl.

P. A. Martyushov¹, S. A. Shavnin²

¹Botanical Garden of Ural Brunch of Russian Academy of Science
8-e Marta Str. 202, 620144, Ekaterinburg, Russia
e-mail: martovl@mail.ru.
²Uralian State University of Forestry
Sibirsky Tr. 37, 620100, Ekaterinburg, Russia
e-mail: biophys@usfea.ru
.

Structure analysis based on regular morphological variability at organism level is applied to study the shape and spatial construction of lichen Hypogymnia physodes (L.) Nyl. Some structural elements were determined at juvenile stage of development with the use of this approach. Five of them are dominant. Besides, five the most frequent encounter types of thallus branching were described. It is shown that thallus structure at adult stage is usually built from two main elements forming axial dichotomy. Analysis of thallus shape indicates that transformation of dichotomy elements into trichotomy ones may also take place during growth and development of thallus.