Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus heteromerous, foliose, dorsiventral, lobate to fruticose, ± loosely attached. Upper surface greyish-brown to brown, never white-pruinose. Photobiont green, Trebouxia. Medulla white or in the lower part orange-red (skyrin). Lower surface brownish or black, corticate, paraplectenchymatous, of thick-walled isodiametric cells. Apothecia lecanorine, laminal, ± sessile, with rhizines on underside, disc brown to black. Ascospores brown, thick-walled, 1-septate, 8 per ascus. Pycnidia laminal, immersed. Conidia ellipsoid, small.

Phaeophyscia is a genus of c. 22 species [Moberg Symb. bot. upsal. 22: 1-108 (1977); Bot. Notiser 131: 259-262 (1978); Nord. J. Bot. 31: 509-516 (1983); Esslinger Mycotaxon 7: 283-320 (1978)], included in the family Physciaceae. Three species are known in New Zealand but the genus is still poorly collected and little known there.