Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus squamulose, 0.2-1.5 mm diam., attached to substrate by medullary hyphae, greenish, yellowish to brownish, sorediate, upper cortex paraplectenchymatous. Medulla white of non-amyloid hyphae. Photobiont green ? Trebouxia. Apothecia lecideine, black or brownish, laminal, sessile, plane and marginate, becoming convex and immarginate. Hymenium 40-50 µm high. Paraphyses thin, not anastomosing, apices not or only slightly thickened. Asci clavate, 8-spored. Ascospores ellipsoid to fusiform, colourless, simple or partly septate, not halonate.

Hypocenomyce, a segregate of Lecidea sens. lat. , comprises three squamulose species related to Psora [Schneider Biblthca lich. 13: 79-87 (1980)]. The ecological requirements of the taxa comprising the genus are not yet well defined. One species occurs in New Zealand.