Porina epiphylla
≡Porina americana var. epiphylla Fée in J.B.G.G.M Bory de St Vincent et al. Dict. Class. Hist. Nat. 17: 26 (1831).
Description : Thallus foliicolous, often forming extensive patches on surface of leaves, pale grey-green to pale-green, smooth to minutely roughened–uneven, matt to slightly glossy, without a prothallus. Perithecia convex to hemispherical, 0.25–0.4(–0.5) mm diam., covered by thalline tissue almost to ostiole, or upper part exposing pale-brown to dark-brown perithecial wall; ostiole inconspicuous. Involucrellum apical and ±vestigial to dimidiate. Exciple c. 10 μm thick, hyaline to pale yellowish brown. Asci narrowly obclavate, 60–84 × 9–12 μm. Ascospores elongate-fusiform to bacillar, 7-septate, 25–35 × 3–4.5 μm, one end usually rather acute.
N: Wellington. On fern leaves (Stirton 1877: 302). Widely distributed in all tropical biomes (Santesson 1952; Lücking & Vězda 1998; McCarthy 2003d; Farkas 2004; Herrera-Campos et al. 2004).
Pantropical
Illustrations : McCarthy (2003d: 40–43: 41, fig. 4); Grube et al. (2004b: 1117, fig. 2).
Porina epiphylla is characterised by: the foliicolous habit: the pale grey-green, smooth to slightly roughened thallus; hemispherical perithecia covered by thalline tissue almost to the ostiole, or with apical parts pale red-brown to dark-brown; and 7-septate, elongate-fusiform to bacillar ascospores, 25–35 × 3–4.5 μm, one end usually rather acute.
