Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus subfruticose, homoiomerous, spongy, inflated, soft, of thick-walled hyphae, much branched and irregularly anastomosing, felted or woolly, or forming an irregular reticulum. Photobiont green, cells minute, Palmella. Apothecia lateral, sessile, lecideine. Exciple prosoplecten- chymatous. Hypothecium dark. Paraphyses simple, conglutinate. Asci 8-spored. Ascospores colourless, ellipsoid or oval, simple. Pycnidia unknown.

Roccellinastrum, originally described as a monotypic genus in the family Chrysotrichaceae on material from Northern Chile [Follmann Nova Hedwigia 14: 243-245 (1967)] is now known to comprise four species, three of which are confined to Chile, with one found in Tasmania and New Zealand [Henssen, Vobis and Renner Nord. J. Bot. 2: 587-599 (1983)]. The New Zealand species, R. neglectum, is an epiphyte of bark and bryophytes in humid forest interiors from sites in North I., Westland, Fiordland and Stewart I. Originally discovered by Colenso, and recorded by Babington [ Fl. N.Z. 2: 289 (1855)] as Parmelia gossypina var. filamentosa, and on the specimens (BM) as Byssocaulon niveum Mont., it is unrelated to any South American lichen. Joseph Hooker [ Handbk N.Z. Fl.: 581 (1867)] and Müller Argoviensis [ Bull. Herb. Boissier 2, App. l: 73 (1894)] referred the same material to Byssocaulon filamentosum Nyl.,