Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Gisborne, near Lake Waikaremoana. Supra cort. Podocarpi. J. Jablonszky T55, 1932, BP!

Thallus olive greenish, thin, continuous or occasionally minutely cracked, shining, varnish-like, undulate, minutely wrinkled, 1-3 cm diam., in irregular patches. Apothecia sessile, constricted at base at maturity, globose, 0.1-1.5 mm diam., buff brown, thalline margin concolorous with thallus, or brownish, obscuring disc, leaving only a minute central pore, or ± lacerate-stellate, exfoliating, Geaster -like disc obscured by thalline margin, pale buff, pruinose. Exciple free. Hymenium 130-140 µm thick. Ascospores 1-2 per ascus, colourless, muriform, broadly ellipsoid with rounded apices, (60-)80-104 × 15-21(-30) µm. Chemistry: Stictic acid.

N: Known only from the type collection but probably more widely distributed in lowland forest.

?Pantropical (New Zealand and Sri Lanka)

T. novae-zelandiae is characterised by the sessile, prominent apothecia with fissured-lacerate margins, and the olive green, shining thallus, reminiscent of Clathroporina exocha. Hale [ Bull. Brit. Mus. nat. Hist. Bot. ser. 8 (3): 261 (1981)], records T. novae-zelandiae from Sri Lanka.