Heteroplacidium podolepis
≡Catapyrenium podolepis Breuss, Pl. Syst. Evol. 185: 29 (1993).
Description : Thallus spreading on rocks, squamulose. Squamae small, 0.5–2 mm diam., brown, dull, plane or wavy, shallowly lobed, adjacent to slightly imbricate, attached to substratum by a central tuft or rhizine-like bundle of rhizohyphae, marginal parts free of substratum. Thallus 250–300 μm thick. Upper cortex of Catapyrenium cinereum-type, 40–50 μm thick, cells 5–10 μm diam.; epinecral layer absent in young squamae, to 20 μm thick in mature squamae. Lower cortex scarcely discernible, of ±densely packed globular cells, 7–11 μm diam. Rhizohyphae hyaline, c. 5 μm diam., forming a central tuft or fascicle. Perithecia immersed, subglobose to 400 μm diam. Exciple pale. Asci clavate, 50–60 × 20–25 μm. Ascospores biseriate, ellipsoidal, hyaline, 14–17 × 7–9 μm. Pycnidia immersed in squamae. Conidia bacillar, 5–6 × 1.5 μm.
Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.
S: Otago (Central Otago). Saxicolous. Still very poorly known and collected. Known also from Argentina where it has been collected only once, and recently from Socotra (Breuss 1993: 30, 1995; Mies & Schultz 2004)
?Paleotropical
Illustration : Breuss (1993a: 27, fig. 2C).
Heteroplacidium podolepis is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; the squamose thallus attached to the substratum by a central bundle of rhizohyphae; immersed perithecia and pycnidia; colourless, ellipsoidal ascospores, 14–17 × 7–9 μm; and bacillar conidia, 5–6 × 1.5 μm.
