Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Lee Stream Valley, 2 km N of Lee Stream school, c. 490 m, 170° 06' E, 45° 46' S. 23 September, 1981. H. Mayrhofer 2199, GZU.

Thallus whitish to pale grey, dispersed, warty or rimose-areolate, prothallus blackish or evanescent, saxicolous. Apothecia lecanorine, adnate to sessile, to 0.8 mm diam., disc black, slightly white-pruinose, plane, becoming convex, margins entire, persistent, ± crenate. Hymenium 90-110 µm tall. Epihymenium pale brown with a granular epipsamma (Pd+ forming orange to red crystals). Hypothecium colourless. Paraphyses small, compact, branched. Ascospores of Milvina -type with changeovers to Physcia -type, torus well-developed, 16-22 × 10-13 µm, wall finely warted. Chemistry: K+ yellow, Pd+ red. Atranorin and pannarin.

S: Otago (Cave Hill, Lamb Hill, Lee Stream).

Endemic

Zahlbruckner's reference to R. exigua f.saxicola [ loc. cit.: 128-129 (1941)] refers to R. murrayi (Lamb Hill) and to R. cacaotina (Anawhata).