Calicium abietinum Pers.
* Account prepared by Dr L. Tibell (Uppsala).
Thallus immersed in substratum. Apothecia epruinose, stalk and capitulum shining black, or stalk with a slight brownish to olivaceous tinge. Upper part of excipulum often slightly translucent, pale. Apothecia 0.5-0.9 mm high, 5-10 times as high as width of stalk. All parts of apothecium I-. Capitulum lenticular or slightly bell-shaped, 0.21-0.28 mm diam. Excipulum formed as a continuation of stalk tissue, with isodiametric to slightly elongated and anticlinally arranged, heavily sclerotized cells. Hypothecium flat or slightly convex. Stalk 0.08-0.13 mm diam., in longitudinal section dark brown, consisting of densely intertwined, sclerotized hyphae. Outermost part of stalk ± hyaline, of pale hyphae and with a thin sheet of gelatinous, I- material at the surface. Asci cylindrical, 44-52 × 4-5 µm, spores uniseriate. Ascospores 12.5-15 × 5.5-7 µm, minutely warted, to minutely cracked-areolate, when old also with coarse cracks. Chemistry: No secondary substances known.
N: South Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Wellington. S: Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, Southland. A common species on decorticated stumps of old trees, rarely on bark, 150-1150 m. In humid but not too wet localities in moderate light.
Cosmopolitan
Widely distributed in the Middle Boreal - Temperate Zones of the Northern Hemisphere.
