Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Campbell I., wet grassland and upland peat bog on summit of Mt Dumas, 500 m, 2.i.1970, R.C. Harris 5018 – MSC.

Description : Thallus areolate. Areolae creamy white, strongly convex, 0.7–1.0 mm diam., interspersed with black cephalodia containing Nostoc (cells 3.5–5 μm diam.), and amorphous brown colonies of Stigonema. Photobiont micareoid, cells globose, thin-walled, 4–7 μm diam., often paired. Apothecia black or dark-brown, lecideine, convex, adnate, margins excluded, 0.8–1.2(–1.4) mm diam., often conglomerate. Epithecium pale-brown, 15–25 μm thick (K−, N−). Hymenium colourless, 70–85 μm tall, I+ blue. Hypothecium to 200 μm thick, pale-brown above, darker below. Asci cylindrical, 50 × 12–15 μm, Micarea -type. Ascospores colourless, 3-septate, 16–19(–21) × 5.5–6 μm. Pycnidia red-brown, immersed in areolae, 0.04–0.05 mm diam. Conidia bacillar, 6–7(–8) × 0.08 μm.

Chemistry : Thallus K−, C−, KC−, Pd+ orange, UV−; containing pannarin.

C: (Mt Dumas. Mt Honey, Mt Fizeau). Overgrowing bryophytes on rock outcrops and feldmark, wet grassland and upland peat bogs (Fryday 2004).

Endemic

Micarea pannarica is characterised by: the bryophilous habit; the creamy white, areolate thallus interspersed with cephalodia containing Nostoc; blackish convex apothecia; 3-septate ascospores 16–19(–21) × 5.5–6 μm; and pannarin.