Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Paraporpidia aboriginum Rambold

Description : Thallus crustose, spreading on rock substrata. Ascomata apothecia, small to large, sessile or immersed, disc black or grey, not umbonate, margins lecideine, concolorous with disc or darker. Hypothecium brownish. Asci Porpidia -type, 8-spored. Ascospores colourless, non-halonate. Conidiomata pycnidia. Conidia filiform.

Paraporpidia is a palaeotropical genus of three species (Kirk et al. 2001), included in the family Porpidiaceae (Rambold 1989; Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). Species of Paraporpidia are characterised by: non-halonate ascospores; filiform conidia; a dark-pigmented hypothecium; and apothecial discs that are neither umbonate nor gyrose (Rambold 1989: 243). It is closely related to Poeltiaria but is distinguished from that genus by the non-halonate ascospores and the dark hypothecium. Two species are known from New Zealand, one being a very commonly collected saxicolous/terricolous lichen.