Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus crustose, smooth, shining, ± varnish-like. Photobiont green, Trentepohlia. Ascocarps in form of pseudothecia, united in a ± rounded stroma, separated by thin lateral walls and with a common upper wall. Pseudoparaphyses indistinct. Ascospores brown, 1-septate to several-septate, oval-ellipsoid, 8 per ascus.

Melanotheca is a pyrenocarpous genus of 40 species of mainly tropical distribution. It is related to Trypethelium (which has colourless rather than brown spores) and is included in the family Trypetheliaceae. Although poorly collected in New Zealand it is ± frequent on smooth-barked native trees and shrubs in lowland forest in shaded, humid habitats. Three species are recorded here.