Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Lee Stream Valley SW Dunedin, Lee Stream Bridge, c. 320 m, 170º08'E, 45º48's, 23.ix.1981, H. Mayrhofer 2218 – GZU. Isotype – CHR 528670.

Description : Thallus epilithic, pale-grey to grey-brown, granular, cracked to areolate, without a prothallus. Apothecia lecanorine, becoming ±lecideine, adnate to sessile, contiguous to 0.7 mm diam; disc concave to plane to subconvex, brown-black, margins becoming excluded. Parathecium laterally pale brownish, expanded above, brown. Epithecium dark-brown. Hymenium 90–110 μm tall. Paraphyses 1.5–2 μm thick, apices capitate, to 6 μm diam. Hypothecium to 200 μm thick, colourless to pale brownish, K−. Asci Lecanora -type. Ascospores Physcia -type, spore ontogeny type A, torus well-developed, 19–25 × 9–11.5 μm. Pycnidia immersed. Conidia bacillar, 2–5 × 1 μm.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

N: Wellington (Cape Palliser). S: Canterbury (Taylor's Mistake), Otago (Central Otago, Lee Stream, Otago Peninsula – summit road, S of Harbour Cone). On siliceous rocks, often in pasture.

Endemic

Illustrations : Mayrhofer (1983: 268, fig. 3; 271, fig. 13); Kaschik (2006: 63, fig. 30).

Rinodina jamesii is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; the brownish parathecium; and Physcia -type ascospores, 19–25 × 9–11.5 μm.