Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus ascending, erect, subfruticose, 3-10 mm tall, often in pulvinate clumps, to 3 cm diam., corticolous or saxicolous. Lobes stellate-radiate at first, ± linear, ascending at apices, flat 0.2-0.8 mm wide, di- or trichotomously divided, white and smooth beneath with yellow marginal fibrils 0.5-1.5 mm long, mature lobes orange-red, erect, weakly bullate, hollow, sail-like, 2-5(-8) mm long with ends expanded to 2-3 mm wide, hooded and open-ended, exposing algal layer as greenish soredia with few or no basal fibrils. Apothecia 1-3 mm diam., at first broadly sessile on upper surface with prominent, inflexed thalline margin, finally appearing terminal, on 1-2 mm tall striate pedicels and then convex with excluded margin, disc orange-red, matt. Ascospores ellipsoid, 10-16 × 6-8 µm.

N: Auckland, lat. 38° southwards to Wellington. S: Nelson to Southland. On living bark of both native and introduced vegetation, dead twigs, decorticated wood and on rocks in drier eastern parts, s.l. to 1000 m; rarely it is encountered in subalpine sites above treeline.

Australasian