Chaenotheca brunneola (Ach.) Müll.Arg.
*Account prepared by Dr L. Tibell (Uppsala).
Calicium brunneolum Ach., K. Vet. Akad. Handl. 1816: 279 (1816).
Thallus immersed or more rarely episubstratic, granular to farinaceous, ecorticate, consisting of spherical aggregates of the photobiont surrounded by mycobiont: Dictyochloropsis or Trebouxia. Apothecia short to long, 0.6-1.6 mm high, 9-23 times as high as width of stalk. Stalk 0.05-0.10 mm diam., shining, black, epruinose, often branched so that one stalk carries 2-5 capitula. Capitulum spherical, with poorly developed excipulum formed as a continuation of stalk tissue, widening to a shallow cup with the short excipular edge bent outwards. Hypothecium broadly obconical, with strongly convex upper surface. Capitulum without pruina, but lower side of excipulum sometimes appears pruinose because of the presence of pale hyphae projecting freely from the surface. Asci of variable shape, estipitate, with ± biseriate spores, 11-13 × 2.2-3.3 µm, produced in chains, or cylindrical, well-stalked with uniseriate spores, 15-19 × 2-3 µm. Ascospores spherical, 3.4-4.6 µm diam., smooth, or with irregular fissures. Chemistry: Containing either two unidentified Pd+ substances, a different Pd+ substance, or with no detectable amounts of secondary substances at all. Thallus K-, C-, KC-, Pd+ yellow to red or Pd-.
N: North Auckland, South Auckland, Gisborne, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Wellington. S: Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Westland, Otago, Southland. Common on decorticated stumps particularly of Nothofagus, and also on bark of various trees in shaded and rather humid situations, s.l. to 1250 m.
Cosmopolitan
C. brunneola has a very wide distribution in the Northern Hemisphere occurring in the Northern Boreal - Temperate Zones.
