Lecidea laeta Stirt.
Lectotype: Tasmania. Mrs Heywood MacEwen, rec'd May 1892, BM!
Thallus greyish-white, to glaucous-grey, smooth, matt or shining, continuous to ± granular-papillate, or ± areolate-cracked, areolae convex, minutely papillate, often ± eroded or lacking, not sorediate, in patches, 5-30 mm diam. Apothecia conspicuous, frequent, sessile, solitary to confluent-clustered, 0.1-1.0 mm diam., rounded to irregular, often contorted through mutual pressure, disc plane to subconvex, bright orange-red (K+ purple), waxy, smooth or subplicate, matt or shining, margins thin, entire to subcrenulate, concolorous with disc. Ascospores ellipsoid, 13-19 × 3-3.5 µm.
N: S: St: A: Throughout, on bark and twigs, especially of Leptospermum in open, mainly lowland areas and on Dracophyllum in subalpine habitats.
Australasian
In earlier accounts of New Zealand lichens this species was erroneously referred to as L. cinnabarina which does not occur in the Southern Hemisphere.
