Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Westland, Lake Ianthe, 40 km S of Hokitika. A. Henssen 274879, 18.9.1981, MB.

Thallus greenish-white when fresh, becoming yellowish on storage, byssoid- spongiose or cottony, the surface interspersed with granules. Lobes terete, or in part flattened, branched, densely aggregated, attached to substrate by single hyphae or with only a short side branch at point of contact. Branched lobes to 5 mm long and 0.2-0.4(-0.8) mm wide, of thick-walled, regularly branched hyphae forming a cylindrical, netlike structure. Apothecia and pycnidia formed in outer hyphal layer of lobes, predominantly at lobe tips and side branches. Apothecia globose, 0.3-0.4 mm diam., stipitate, pale or discoloured reddish, lecideine without proper margin, stalks simple or branched, to 1 mm tall, fruiting parts often compound, centre of apothecium and stalk becoming hollow and interspersed with pigment crystals. Stipe already developed in young primordia. Excipulum of branched, radiating hyphae with strongly gelatinising walls, not sharply delimited from branched paraphyses of hymenium and intergrading into palisade-like outer layer of apothecial stalk. Hymenium 25-40 µm tall. Hypothecium colourless, 15-20 µm thick. Paraphyses c. 1.5 µm thick. Asci cylindrical, with amyloid cap or ring structure in thickened apex. Ascospores colourless, bacilliform simple. Chemistry: Protocetraric and squamatic acids.

N: Sine loco (Colenso - BM). S: Westland (Greymouth, Hokitika), Southland (Fiordland, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound). St: On bark among mosses and ferns in deep shade in high-rainfall, forested areas.

Australasian

R. neglectum differs from Sagenidium molle in the character of the fruits, the simple spores and also in the chemistry.