Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Urecolaria verrucosa Ach., Lichenogr. universalis: 339 (1810).

≡Pachyospora verrucosa (Ach.) A.Massal., Ric. Lich. Crost.: 44 (1852).

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 328 – as Pachyospora verrucosa). See also Lumbsch et al. (1994c: 297–302).

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

S: Otago (Pisa Ra., Old Man Ra., Rock & Pillar Ra.). On soil or among bryophytes or decaying vegetation, on ground in alpine habitats, easily overlooked and probably more widepread in South I. mountains. Boreal–circumpolar in the Northern Hemisphere where it favours calcareous soils (Hertel 1971; Purvis et al. 1992c; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Türk et al. 1993; Hansen 1995; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Scholz 2000; Brodo et al. 2001; Coppins 2002b; Kurokawa 2003; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Obermayer 2004; Santesson et al. 2004), it is known in the Southern Hemisphere from Venezuela, Tierra del Fuego, New Zealand, South Georgia, the South Orkney Is, the South Shetland Is, and the Antarctic Peninsula (Galloway 1985a; Jacobsen & Kappen 1988; Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001; Messuti & Vobis 2003; Søchting et al. 2004). It is not known from Australia (Filson 1996; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Bipolar

Illustrations : Lumbsch et al. (1994c: 296, fig. 1A–G; 298, fig. 2A–G); Hansen (1995: 104 – as Pachyospora verrucosa); Wirth (1995a: 572); Dobson (2000: 227; 2005: 259); Brodo et al. (2001: 429, pl. 491).

Megaspora verrucosa is characterised by: the terricolous/muscicolous habit; a crustose, whitish grey thallus composed of ±pruinose, glistening granules or squamules, spreading in patches on soil, mosses or decaying vegetation; apothecia immersed in verrucae; hypothecium and hymenium colourless; asci cylindrical to cylindrical–clavate and thick-walled, the outer wall staining pale-blue in KI; ascospores are colourless, simple, thick-walled and two-layered, large (up to 50 μm long) and broadly ellipsoidal; pycnidia are immersed in the thallus and are unilocular, the conidiophores are type III of Vobis (1980), and the conidia are filiform, to 12 μm long.