Caloplaca blastenioides Zahlbr.
Lectotype: New Zealand. Canterbury, Castle Hill, on limestone. J.S. Thomson ZA 46 (T 1610), CHR 373788!
Thallus crustose, granular-furfuraceous or lacking, white, K-, often ± reduced to granules round the apothecia, saxicolous. Apothecia sessile, crowded, rounded to ± irregularly contorted through mutual pressure, 0.1-0.5 mm diam., disc ferrugineous brown-red, matt, concave to plane, rarely convex and immarginate with age, margins persistent, orange, entire, sometimes occluded with age. Ascospores biseriate, ellipsoid-oblong, apices rounded, straight, 2-locular, 13.6-17.0 × 6-8.3 µm, septum thin, c. 1/8 length of spore. Paraphyses moniliform at ends, end cell clavate.
N: Wellington (Buchanan, BM). S: Canterbury (Castle Hill).
Endemic
C. blastenioides is a characteristic limestone species, with a white or ± obsolete thallus, brown-red fruits and characteristic spores which have very large locules separated by a very thin septum. It seems to be related to the Northern Hemisphere species C. lactea (Massal.) Zahlbr., but differs in the colour of the apothecial discs and in the moniliform paraphyses.
