Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Chrysothrix noli-tangere Mont.  nom. illeg. [Peribotryon pavonii Fr.: Fr. =Chrysothrix pavonii (Fr.: Fr.) J.R.Laundon.]

Description : Flora (1985: 93).

Chrysothrix, included in the family Chrysotrichaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005) comprises ten species (Kalb 2001b; Kirk et al. 2001; Tønsberg 2004a; Jagadeesh Ram et al. 2006), most of wide distribution (Laundon 1981). Species grow on trees, wood, and shaded acid rocks in all parts of the world except the larger deserts, and are characterised by their bright yellow or yellowish green colour (pulvinic acid derivatives), the powdery, unstratified thallus, apothecia (rare) that are either immarginate or with poorly developed non-corticate margins, and 3-septate, obovoid to narrowly ellipsoidal ascospores. Specimens of Chrysothrix are commonly sterile but are readily distinguished from Lepraria (q.v.) and other leprose lichens by their bright colour and chemistry. One species occurs in New Zealand.