Laurera elatior (Stirt.) D.J.Galloway
Ascidium elatius Stirton, J. Linn. Soc. Lond. Bot. 14: 466 (1875).
A. melanosporum Knight, T.N.Z.I. 7: 363 (1875).
Lectotype: New Zealand, near Wellington. J. Buchanan (received 11 February, 1882), BM! Isotype in WELT! marked "J. Buchanan 129, Tinakori Hills, August 1873".
Ascidium melanosporum. Lectotype: New Zealand. Sine loco (prob. Wellington). Charles Knight, BM!
Thallus crustose, spreading in irregular patches, 2-8(-10) cm diam., pale olive greenish, yellowish-fawn, pale yellow or grey-yellow to glaucous brown, nodular-papillate in humps or concrescent lumps, 0.3-1.2 mm diam., ± glebose, minutely white-papillate, thick, shining or dull. Perithecia often densely crowded in prominent hemispherical thalline verrucae, monocarpic, 0.4-1.5 mm diam., apical pore black, indented to 0.2 or 0.3 mm diam. Excipulum carbonised, red-brown. Paraphyses colourless, branched-reticulate. Ascospores very large 1, occasionally 2 per ascus, encased inside a gelatinous sac which is extruded with the ascospores, which becomes dark red-brown with age, densely muriform, wall of two distinct layers, 230-330 mm × 60-90 µm.
N: South Auckland, Waiwera Hill Scenic Reserve, on Dysoxylum spectabile. Wellington [C. Knight - (BM); J. Buchanan - (BM, GLAM)]. S: Nelson, Maruia Valley, Calf Paddock near Springs Junction, on Nothofagus fusca. Still very much undercollected in New Zealand but probably widespread on bark of Dacrydium cupressinum and other trees.
Endemic
The very large spores are characteristic and can be seen on the surface of the lichen close to the perithecia (×10 lens) as small dark brown or black rods.
