Candelariella aurella (Hoffm.) Zahlbr.
Verrucaria aurella Hoffm., Dtsch. Fl.: 197 (1796).
Thallus yellow or greenish-grey or ashy, granular-dispersed, obsolete or lacking. Apothecia common, small, to 1.2 mm diam., widely dispersed and rarely or never crowded-confluent, margins entire to subcrenate, persistent, not granular or sorediate, disc plane to subconvex, darker yellow than margins, surface rather rough. Ascospores 8 per ascus, oblong or ellipsoid, straight or curved, 12-30 × 5-7.5 µm. Chemistry: Calycin and pulvinic dilactone.
S: Otago (Flagstaff Hill, Dunedin, Saddle Hill, Kyeburn). On rock and also cement. It is still poorly collected in New Zealand.
Cosmopolitan
In Europe and North America it is known from calcareous substrates or from nutrient rich rocks such as bird perching stones.
It is distinguished from C. vitellina by its dispersed apothecia which are never crowded, by the lack of a defined thallus apart from the apothecia, and by the size and number of spores.
