Flora of New Zealand Series

Lectotype (fide Hayward, loc. cit., p. 571): New Zealand, Sine loco. ?Wellington. Charles Knight 67: 23, WELT!

Thallus crustose, smooth, continuous, verrucose with occasional fissures, especially around lirellae, creamish-yellow to greyish-white. Lirellae raised, branched, flexuous, often crowded and tending to lie parallel, or sometimes more radiate and dendroid, 1-4 mm long and 0.2-0.4 mm wide, thalline exciple prominent, raised, distinct, and closely following the sinuous apothecia, proper exciple closing with a slit, base variable, open to closed, often brown. Ascospores 6-8 per ascus, (5-)6-8-locular, locules lenticular, 5-9 × 18-29 µm. Chemistry: Norstictic acid.

N: Northland (Kawerua) to Wellington. S: Nelson to Southland. Widely distributed on both introduced (Alnus, Crataegus, Ligustrum, Prunus, Salix) and native (Avicennia, Coriaria, Melicope, Nothofagus) trees and shrubs, coastal and lowland.

Endemic

G. librata is a variable species. The type has an open brown base, and specimens examined range from open to closed. The curvature of the proper exciple as it closes over the hymenium is also variable.