Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lichen erisybe Ach. Methodus Suppl. : 62 (1803). 

Description : Thallus thin, scurfy, areolate, areolae angular, scattered or continuous, delimited, ±densely blastidiate, greenish yellow to dirty greenish grey-brown. Apothecia to 0.4 mm diam., adnate to sessile, solitary to scattered or somewhat clustered; disc orange- to black-brown, plane to convex. Thalline exciple developing granular blastidia concolorous with thallus. Proper exciple paler than disc. Epithecium yellow-brown, greenish brown to brown-black. Hymenium 50–70 μm tall, colourless. Ascospores 1-septate, ellipsoidal, 9–15 × 3–5 μm.

N: S: Throughout. On nutrient-enriched substrata, e.g. bird-perch tops of tanalised wooden fenceposts and railings, especially in rural areas. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Macaronesia, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel, Turkey, North America, Australia (Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Hafellner 1995b; Egea 1996; Filson 1996; Galun & Mukhtar 1996; John 1996; Seaward 1996; Diederich & Sérusiaux 2000; Scholz 2000; Hafellner & Türk 2001; Llimona & Hladun 2001; McCarthy 2001m, 2003c, 2006; Coppins 2002b; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004), where it is a species of urban and rural ruderal landscapes.

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Foucard (1990: pl. 120); Dobson (2000: 180, 182; 2005: 204).

Lecania erisybe is characterised by: the lignicolous habit (often nutrient-enriched); the dirty greenish brown, densely blastidiate thallus; clustered, orange-brown to brown-black apothecia; and 1-septate, ellipsoidal ascospores, 9–15 × 3–5 μm.