Solorina spongiosa (Sm.) Anzi
Lichen spongiosus Sm. in Sm. et Sowerby, Engl. Bot.: tab. 1374 (1804).
Thallus poorly developed, or of scattered to ± densely packed, imbricate, coralloid or squamiform external cephalodia, 1-3 mm tall, grey-blue to ± fulvescent or rarely brown-black, spreading in patches, 2-10 cm diam., terricolous. Apothecia common, 1-5 mm diam., rounded, shallowly concave to ± urceolate, margins 0.1-1.0 mm wide, flattened, pale green or olivaceous, often white-pruinose and appearing frosted, exciple coarsely scabrid, pale green, whitish or tinged red-brown, often with coralloid cephalodia, disc matt, pale to dark red-brown. Asci 4-spored. Ascospores broadly ellipsoid with rounded apices, 30-55 × 16-26 µm, epispore furrowed.
S: Nelson (Blue Creek Gorge, Mt Owen Ra., Tasman Mountains). First discovered (also a first record for the Southern Hemisphere) by J.K. Bartlett (22494) on damp calcareous soil among bryophytes at the base of marble cliffs.
Bipolar
"... S. spongiosa normally develops as a number of small to moderate-sized urceolate apothecia set in a dark blue-grey to black-brown coralloid thallus composed of external cephalodia. The cephalodia contain Nostoc with the result that the vegetative thallus becomes spongy and gelatinous when wet. The apothecia are always bordered by a narrow collar of "normal" thallus containing Coccomyxa..." [Gilbert Lichenologist 7: 184-185 (1975)].
