Flora of New Zealand Series

P. albissima Müll. Arg., Flora 67: 350 (1884).

Holotype: New Zealand. Sine loco (prob. Wellington). Dr Knight, 1883, G 638/1!

P. albissima. Holotype: New Zealand. Sine loco (prob. Wellington). Charles Knight, G - not seen.

Thallus glaucous grey-white or dingy creamish-white or pale olivaceous, matt, wrinkled-plicate or irregularly cracked, often obliterated by crowded verrucae, in patches 2-6 cm diam., in places whitish erose-subfarinose, corticolous. Fertile verrucae crowded, round to irregular 0.5-2.0 mm diam., ± hemispherical, white-farinose or concolorous with thallus. Apothecia 1-3 per verruca, innate, ostiole red-brown to black, punctiform to irregular 0.1-0.3(-0.7) mm wide, apex flattened, to ± papillate. Asci 8-spored, biseriate. Ascospores oval-ellipsoid, contents granular-oily to translucent, (43-)50-70(-78.3) × 26.1-39.1 µm, wall c. 8 µm thick, to 13.5 µm at apices. Chemistry: TLC nil.

N: Known only from the type collections.

Endemic