Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Auckland Islands. Port Ross, Laurie Harbour. On rocks above Verrucaria maura belt. G. Einar Du Rietz 2225/b: 1, S!

Thallus thick, ± foliose-lobate, coriaceous, in conspicuous patches 1-3(-12) cm diam., margins placodioid-effigurate, of radiating lobes separated by black- edged, often anastomosing cracks of varying width, 0.05-0.1 mm. Lobes 2-5 mm long, 0.5-1.2 mm wide and 0.2 mm thick, pale sordid buff-brown to blackish, matt, central parts flat, smooth or subundulate, tesselate-areolate, areolae angular 0.5-1.5 mm diam., on a thick, carbonaceous hypothallus visible between areolae but not at margins, saxicolous. Perithecia common, minute, immersed, 1-3(-10) per areole, apices black, convex, matt or shining, 0.15-0.3 mm wide. Asci 50 × 20 µm. Ascospores ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, (12-)13-15(-16) × (7-)8-9(-10) µm.

S: Otago (Allans Beach, Black Head), Southland (Bluff). St: A: On coastal rocks often associated with Candelariella, Caloplaca and Rinodina. The species is discussed in detail in Lamb [ Discovery Repts 25: 17-21 (1948)].

Endemic?