Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus crustose, epi- or endophloeodal, effuse or lacking, matt or glossy, olive-green or pale yellowish-brown, to scarcely differentiated from substrate, often with scattered, minute white spots (×10 lens), not, or rarely, delimited by a thin, black marginal line. Photobiont green, Trentepohlia, in a ± continuous subcortical layer. Ascocarps in the form of perithecia, single to 2-5 confluent, embedded in a carbonaceous stromatic shell (involucrellum). Perithecial wall (exciple) internal to involucrellum, brownish or yellowish. Ostioles single or joined, inclined, or vertical, apices punctate, black, pale whitish or reddish. Paraphyses persistent c. 1 µm thick, septate, net-like, anastomosing. Asci bitunicate, clavate, thick-walled. Ascospores (4-)8 per ascus, broadly ellipsoid, brown at maturity, muriform.

Parmentaria is a mainly tropical genus of c. 25 species included in the family Pyrenulaceae [Imshaug and Harris Lichenologist 4: 77-82 (1969)]. It is represented in Australia by 15 species [Weber and Wetmore Beih. Nova Hedwigia 41: 78-79 (1972)]. Of the 7 species recorded for New Zealand by Müller Argoviensis [ Bull. Herb. Boisser 2, App. 1: 97 (1894)], at least 4 are Australian and are not present in New Zealand. The genus is still very poorly known and very much undercollected in New Zealand. Two species are discussed below, separated mainly on spore characters.