Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus crustose, uniform, ecorticate, not differentiated, saxicolous. Photobiont green, Trebouxia. Apothecia sessile or immersed, pale or dark, biatorine, lacking a thalline exciple, K+ purple (parietin). Hypothecium pale or dark. Paraphyses simple. Ascospores 8 per ascus, colourless, simple, ellipsoid, rarely spuriously 1-septate.

Protoblastenia is a cosmopolitan genus of 11 species included in the family Teloschistaceae. It is separated from Blastenia by the simple, non-polaribilocular spores. One species is recorded from New Zealand.