Brigantiaea fuscolutea (Dicks.) R.Sant.
* Account prepared by Dr J. Hafellner (Graz, Austria).
Lichen fuscoluteus Dickson, Fasc. pl. crypt. Brit. 2: 18 (1790).
Thallus thin, granular-verrucose, matt or shining, white or grey-white to pale yellowish-grey, spreading, to 8 cm diam., muscicolous or terricolous. Apothecia to 4 mm diam., sessile to subpedicellate, disc concave at first, becoming plane or subconvex, mustard-yellow to orange or yellow-brown, margins persistent, rather thick, entire to irregularly crenate, inflexed, stipe near the base brownish and without anthraquinone crystals. Hypothecium thick, colourless, 100-150 µm tall. Ascospores 1 per ascus, colourless, 8-105(-120) × 25-45(-55) µm muriform, ellipsoid or oblong. Chemistry: Atranorin, chloratranorin, parietin [J. Santesson Dtsch. bot. Ges. N.F. 4: 5-21(1970)].
S: Nelson (Cobb Valley) to Southland (Longwood Ra.) both east and west of the Main Divide. St: In subalpine grasslands and fellfield where it encrusts bryophytes, decumbent vegetation or occasionally bare soil. Easily recognised by the pale whitish encrusting thallus and the mustard-yellow, scattered, large, subpedicellate apothecia often with a dense covering of anthraquinone crystals on the margins and disc.
Bipolar
