Conotremopsis weberiana
Description : Thallus effuse, whitish to pinkish or orange-green, spongy-byssoid, filamentous, especially at or towards margins. Apothecia scattered to crowded, barrel-shaped, cupulate, 0.5–0.8 mm diam., 0.25–0.3 mm tall; exciple prominent, without photobiont cells, whitish, flocculent to lacerate, closed at first, at length opening, and exposing the urceolate, grey-black disc, the margins becoming noticeably dentate-stellate at maturity. Hymenium colourless, 500–600 μm tall. Hypothecium densely interwoven, colourless, to 50 μm thick. Paraphyses dense, simple, unbranched, straight, 1 μm thick. Asci cylindrical, 430–500 × 8–10 μm, walls 1 μm thick. Ascospores, colourless, filiform-acicular, 400–420 × 2–2.5 μm, transversely multi-septate (80–100 septa), halonate. Pycnidia not seen.
S: Canterbury (Arthur's Pass). Amongst mosses on branches of mountain beech. Known also from Tasmania (Vězda 1977; Kantvilas & Jarman 1999; McCarthy 2003c, 2006), and recently recorded from Réunion (Kalb 2004a: 309).
Palaeotropical
Illustrations : Vězda (1977: figs 19, 20); Kantvilas & Jarman (1999: 61); Lumbsch et al. (2001a: 37).
Conotremopsis weberiana is characterised by: the whitish to pinkish to orange-green, orbicular, fluffy or felted thalli (often overgrowing mosses); the small, scattered apothecia with white, stellate margins and a dark, carbonaceous disc; the ascospores are needle-like, very long (400–420 μm) and multi-septate (80–100-septate).
