Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Halecania alpivaga (Th.Fr.) M.Mayrhofer [=Lecania alpivaga Th.Fr.]

Description : Thallus crustose, effuse, rimose-cracked, areolate, or granular to warted, rarely squamulose, sometimes forming irregular patches with an effigurate margin. Prothallus generally absent, when present blackish grey. Upper surface smooth to knobbly, matt to glossy, with or without soredia. Cortex of anticlinal paraplectenchymatous, thin-walled cells, often with brown-capped terminal cells overlain by an epinecral layer. Photobiont green, chlorococcoid. Ascomata apothecia, subimmersed, sessile to substipitate; disc pale-grey, pale- to dark-brown or black. Thalline margin mostly well-developed, swollen to receding, concolorous with thallus or paler. Epithecium yellowish brown, dark-brown or red-brown to orange, K−, N− or N+ reddish brown. Hymenium hyaline. Hamathecium of paraphyses, simple, often branched in upper parts or sparingly branched, septate, with capitate, brown apices, 1.5–3 μm diam., conglutinated with asci in an I+ blue gelatinous matrix. Asci cylindrical or narrowly to broadly clavate, 35–50 × 10–15 μm, with a thin, amyloid, outer gelatinous coat, (Catillaria -type), 8-spored. Ascospores hyaline, 1-septate, ellipsoidal, clavate or ovoid- to oblong-ellipsoidal, 10–20 × (3–)5–9(–10) μm, with a perispore up to c. 2 μm thick, rarely constricted at septum. Conidiomata pycnidia, inconspicuous, immersed. Conidia simple, short, bacillar.

Halecania is a genus of c. 15 species included in the family Catillariaceae (Mayrhofer 1987; Coppins 1989b; Fryday & Coppins 1996a; van den Boom & Ryan 2004a; Eriksson 2005; van den Boom & Elix 2005). It was introduced by Mayrhofer (1987) to accommodate species of Lecania s. lat., differing from species of Lecania s. str. (q.v.) in having asci with a uniformly apical dome (Catillaria -type), paraphyses with dark-brown apical caps and halonate ascospores. Species of Halecania are found on a wide range of substrata, from calcareous and acidic rocks (often eutrophicated) in the mesic-supralittoral zone to montane regions, and from bark, decorticated wood, bryophytes or other lichens (van den Boom & Elix 2005). Two species are recorded from New Zealand (van den Boom & Elix 2005).