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Lichens Pan-Z (2007) - Flora of New Zealand Lichens - Revised Second Edition Pan-Z
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Polyblastia A.Massal.

POLYBLASTIA A.Massal., 1852  nom. cons. 

Type : Polyblastia cupularis A.Massal.

Description : Flora (1985: 410). See also McCarthy (2001e: 171).

Key

1
Ascospores pale-brown to dark-brown
2
Ascospores colourless, oval, 18 × 10 μm
trachyspora
2
Ascospores pale-brown to medium-brown, 50–80 × 25–40 μm
cruenta
Ascospores dark-brown, (27–)33(–40) × (18–)21(–27) μm
melaspora

Polyblastia is a cosmopolitan genus of c. 80 species (Kirk et al. 2001), included in the family Verrucariaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It is heterogeneous and much in need of revision with several taxa not well delimited (Nimis 1993). The characteristic features of Polyblastia are: the pyrenocarpous ascomata; paraphyses dissolving early into a gelatinous mass; persistent periphyses forming a fringe around interior of ostiole; unitunicate asci Verrucaria - type; colourless or brown, muriform ascospores; protococcoid or other non-trentepohlioid photobiont; and an absence of algal cells in the hymenium (Swinscow 1971; Harris 1973; Purvis & James 1992d; McCarthy 1995c). It is closely related to Staurothele (q.v.), which has characteristic algal cells present in the hymenium. Three species are recorded from New Zealand (McCarthy & Johnston 1995; Fryday 2000a), though the genus is still very poorly understood and collected here.

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