Baeomyces haemotropus Leight.
Baeomyces cupreus Müll. Arg., Bull. Soc. r. Bot. Belg. 31: 25 (1892).
B. haemotropus Leighton, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. Bot. 10: 31 (1869).
B. granosus Stirton, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. Bot. 14: 46 (1875).
B. fuscocarneus F. Wilson, Vict. Nat. 6: 67 (1889).
B. heteromorphus f. rubens Hellbom, Bihang K. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl. 21(3) 13: 95 (1896).
B. cinnabarinus Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 325 (1941).
Cladoniopsis caespitosa Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 325 (1941).
Thallus greenish when wet, greenish-yellow to greyish-green or dirty white when dry, minutely squamulose, corticate, irregularly cracked and warted, not sorediate. Podetia 10-15 mm tall, simple to 1-4 branched near apices, stalks pale flesh-coloured, yellowish-white or suffused reddish, often superficially invested with green algae, surface smooth, often waxy, corrugate and coarsely vertically grooved. Apothecia terminal or subterminal, often clustered, disc pale pink to dark reddish-brown, plane or convex with a distinct, pale, flexuous margin, thalline exciple pale. Ascospores oblong, simple, 7-10 × 3-5 µm. Chemistry: Thallus and apothecia K+ yellow-red, C-, Pd+ orange. Norstictic, connorstictic and hypoprotocetraric (tr.) acids.
N: Northland (Bay of Islands) to Wellington. S: Nelson (Kaiteriteri) to Southland. St: (Mt Anglem to Port Pegasus). Very widely distributed, s.l. to 1200 m, an active coloniser of exposed soils and gravels, occasionally also on old wood and decumbent vegetation.
Australasian
B. heteromorphus is the most frequently collected species of Baeomyces in New Zealand. It is intensely polymorphic varying from much-branched elongated plants (Cladoniopsis caespitosa -type) to short, ± sessile tufts (B. fuscocarneus -type). The variation in morphology is not supported by any variation in chemistry or in anatomical characters in the apothecia.
