Pertusaria leucoplaca
Description : Thallus greyish white, areolate, surface smooth and dull, without isidia or soredia. Apothecia verruciform, conspicuous, scattered, flattened-hemispherical, sometimes constricted at base, concolorous with thallus, sometimes slightly concave above, 0.8–1.5 mm diam.; ostioles conspicuous, pale-brown to dark-brown or black, 1, rarely 2 per verruca. Ascospores 8 per ascus, biseriate or irregularly biseriate, subfusiform to fusiform, smooth, 70–90(–100) × 25–35 μm.
Chemistry : K−, C−, KC−, Pd−; containing 2- O -methylstenosporic acid with 2- O -methylperlatolic acid and 2- O -methyldivaricatic acid as minor or trace compounds (Archer & Elix 1994a: 212).
N: Northland (Poor Knights Is, Rakitu I.). On coastal scrub. Known also from Brazil, India and E Australia (Archer & Elix 1994a; Archer 1997, 2004a; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).
Pantropical
Illustration : Archer (1997: 92, fig. 27).
Pertusaria leucoplaca is characterised by: the corticolous habit; the 8, biseriate ascospores; and the presence of 2- O -methylstenosporic acid.
