Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Campbell I., tussock grassland at base of cliffs on N side of Beeman Hill, 26.xii.1969, R.C. Harris 4613 – MSC.

Description : Thallus irregularly spreading, often confined to depression in substratum, areolate, 0.1 mm thick. Areolae 0.2–0.4 mm diam., cream with a pinkish tinge, without a marginal prothallus. Apothecia immersed, with a pseudothalline margin, typically narrowly elongate, 0.3–0.4 × 0.1–0.15 mm diam., but occasionally also orbicular; disc red-brown to dark-brown, partly white-pruinose, separated from thallus by a narrow crack. Epithecium orange-brown, granular, 15–20 μm thick. Hymenium hyaline, I+ blue, 80–90 μm tall. Paraphyses slender, 1.5–2 μm thick, septate, richly branched and anastomosing, apices swollen to 3 μm diam., without a pigmented cap. Hypothecium pale orange-brown, 50–60 μm thick. Asci broadly cylindrical, 60–70 × 18–20 μm, Trapelia -type. Ascospores colourless, ellipsoidal, (15–)17–20(–22) × 9–9.5(–11) μm. Pycnidia 0.025–0.03 mm diam., dark-brown, slightly raised. Conidia filiform, curved, 15–20 × 0.8 μm.

Chemistry : K−, C+ red, Pd−; containing gyrophoric acid.

C: Known only from the type locality on rocks where it associates with Rhizocarpon geographicum (Fryday 2004a).

Endemic

Trapelia herteliana is characterised by: the innate apothecia with a red-brown to dark-brown disc that is often white-pruinose; hymenium 80–90 μm tall; and ellipsoidal ascospores, 15–22 × 9–11 μm.