Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Calicium niveum F.Wilson, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 28: 362 9 (1891).

Description : On lignum or bark, not associated with lichens or free-living algae. Apothecia 0.5–0.8 mm tall. Capitulum dull, black, obovoid or often elongated, irregular, up to twice as high as broad, 0.13–0.20 mm diam. Stalk pale-brown to translucent towards base, dark-brown or covered with an intense red pruina above, lower side of exciple intensely red-pruinose though pruina is often lacking in old apothecia. Epithecium thin, pale. Hypothecium brown, 60–80 μm thick, or up to 230 μm thick in elongated apothecia, with a yellowish red pigment concentrated in strands of amorphous crystals or oily droplets. Exciple distinct and fairly well-developed in young apothecia, of intertwined hyphae formed as a continuation of the outer part of the stalk, 8–13 μm thick and covering the lower half of the capitulum, yellowish brown with varying amounts of yellowish red pigment. Stalk 0.04–0.06 mm diam. of irregularly interwoven, strongly conglutinated hyphae, hyaline in central and basal parts, upper part brown or greenish. All pigmented parts greenish in K, precipitating minute crystals, stalk swelling strongly in K. Asci 35–40 × 2.7–3.8 μm, cylindrical with a thickened apex penetrated by a fine canal. Ascospores uniseriate and slightly oblique in asci, medium-brown, ellipsoidal to allantoid, minutely irregularly ornamented, simple, 6.5–8.1 × 2.2–3.3 μm.

N: Northland (Herekino Gorge) to Wellington (Hihitahi State Forest). S: Nelson (Abel Tasman National Park) to Southland (between Harris Saddle and Lake Howden). On lignum and bark in rainforest where it is known from bark of Nothofagus menziesii and Podocarpus totara, and lignum of Agathis australis and N. fusca, 240–1070 m. Known also from a single locality in Victoria (Tibell 1987: 141; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Illustration : Tibell (1987: 140, fig. 103; 1996b: 42, fig. 27C).

Chaenothecopsis nivea is characterised by: its non-septate, ornamented spores, the intensely red pigment in the exciple, hypothecium and stalk, and the frequently intense red lower side of the capitulum as seen in incident light.