Pyrenula dealbata (C.Knight) Müll.Arg.
Verrucaria dealbata Knight, T.N.Z.I. 8: 324 (1876).
V. glabrata var. cinereoalba Knight, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23: 100 (1860).
V. inflata Stirton, Proc. phil. Soc. Glasg. 10: 302 (1877).
Pyrenula cinereoglauca Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 255 (1941).
Lectotype: New Zealand, Sine loco. Charles Knight (received 11/83), BM!
Verrucaria glabrata var. cinereo-alba. Lectotype: New Zealand. Charles Knight 307, BM!
Verrucaria inflata. Lectotype: New Zealand. Near Wellington. J. Buchanan, BM!
P. cinereoglauca. Lectotype: New Zealand. Otago, Port Chalmers, on Crataegus oxycantha. J.S. Thomson ZA 483, CHR 379755!
Thallus epi- or endophloeodal, greyish-white, pale greenish-white to yellowish-white, or ± lacking of effuse, matt or slightly roughened, often ± waxy, continuous or irregularly to coarsely areolate-cracked, in irregular patches, 1-5(-8) cm diam., delimited at margins by a narrow, irregular, black line. Perithecia frequent and conspicuous, emergent, 0.5-1.8 mm diam., discrete, rarely 2-3- confluent, rounded, flattish to distinctly convex, subglobose and even slightly constricted at base in specimens where cortex is eroded or lacking, pale whitish at first, obscured by a thin covering of cortical cells, then black, matt or shining, sometimes eroding and leaving small pits. Ostiole central, depressed, gaping or papillate. Pycnidia minute, black, punctiform, scattered. Ascospores uniseriate, oblong-ovoid, lemon-shaped, (15.3-)17-22(-25) × (8.3-)10.2-11.9 µm. Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow-dirty brown. TLC-.
N: Northland to Wellington. Lowland and coastal on twigs of shrubs in open situations.
Endemic
A distinctive species recognised by the whitish thallus and the prominent black ascocarps. Apparently the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of P. laevigata, it was early recorded from New Zealand as Verrucaria dermatodes Borrer, as V. alba Schaer., and later as V. glabrata.
