Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Trichothelium rubellum Malcolm & Vězda, Folia Geobot. Phytotax. Praha 30: 95 (1995).

Holotype: New Zealand. Nelson, Brook Track, 41°19.1's, 173° 17.6'E, 130 m, on leaves of Blechnum filiforme, 1.xii.1993, W. Malcolm 1406 – CHR 413964. Isotype – Herb. A. Vĕzda.

Description : Thallus crustose, epiphyllous, thin (8–10 μm thick), continuous, smooth, somewhat translucent greyish green, without a prothallus. Photobiont green, trentepohlioid, cells oblong to subrectangular, forming rather continuous plates, but radiating only indistinctly or not at all as viewed from above. Perithecia dispersed, globose, constricted at base. 0.2–0.25 mm diam., red or reddish brown, apical hairs 5–7, not fused at base, totally white, membranaceous, arranged in a star-like pattern, 0.3–0.6 mm long. Involucrellum 12–15 μm thick, not to almost reaching to substratum, dark reddish brown or red, K+ intense-red, inner wall 10 μm thick, colourless. Paraphyses 0.8 μm thick. Asci fusiform. Ascospores fusiform, apices obtuse, transversely 7-septate, 22–26 × 4–4.5 μm.

S: Nelson. Known only from the type collection.

Endemic

Illustrations : Malcolm & Vězda (1995c: 93, fig. 2 – as Trichothelium rubellum); Malcolm & Malcom (2001: 60 – as Trichothelium rubellum).

Porina rubella is characterised by: the foliicolous habit; the reddish brown colour of the involucrellum; the white setae at the apex of the perithecia; and 7-septate ascospores without a gelatinous sheath.