Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Pyrrhospora quernea (Dicks.) Körb. [=Lichen querneus Dicks.]

Description : Thallus crustose, superficial, granular to ±areolate, with or without soredia. Prothallus forming a delimiting black line, or absent. Photobiont green, Trebouxia -like. Ascomata apothecia, cinnabar-red to reddish brown (containing anthraquinones), convex. Thalline exciple absent. Proper exciple soon becoming excluded, scarcely apparent when mature, of conglutinated, thick-walled, radially orientated hyphae. Epithecium with brownish granules (K+ red-purple). Hymenium hyaline, to 50 μm tall, I+ blue. Hypothecium colourless. Hamathecium of paraphyses, simple or branched towards apices, not or slightly swollen at apices, septate, constricted at septa. Asci 8-spored, broadly clavate, Lecanora -type (Malcolm & Galloway 1997: 186). Ascospores hyaline to slightly brownish, broadly ellipsoidal, simple, smooth, without a distinct perispore. Conidiomata pycnidia, immersed. Conidia filiform.

Pyrrhospora is a genus of c.16 species (Hafellner 1993b; Kirk et al. 2001; Kalb 2001c; Spribille & Hauck 2003; Elix 2004c; Ryan et al. 2004d) in the family Lecanoraceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It is characterised by Lecanora -type asci; red to brown-red apothecia containing anthraquinones (K+ purple); simple, non-halonate ascospores; and filiform conidia. It is related to Ramboldia (q.v.) (see also Printzen & May 2002). Two species are recorded in New Zealand, but the genus needs collection and study here, and at least one taxon remains undescribed.