Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Verrucaria simplicata Nyl., Flora 67: 390 (1884).

Description : Thallus terricolous or overgrowing terricolous bryophytes, squamose. Squamae pale- to dark-brown, sometimes with a greenish or a reddish tinge when moistened, scattered or contiguous, rounded to deeply lobate, at first plane becoming concave, rarely convex, 1–6(–8) mm diam., 0.15–0.3(–0.4) mm thick. Upper surface smooth to delicately wrinkled, rarely slightly cracked, usually matt, occasionally with a sparse to dense covering of pale to dark-brown maculae 30–60 μm wide. Margins dark-brown to black, usually thickened and upturned, often undulate. Lower cortex brown-black. Rhizines brown-black, shining, 1–3(–5) per squama, richly branched, 0.1–0.2(–0.3) mm wide, anchoring and linking squamae, each with a white hyphal core. Perithecia simple, immersed, solitary, 2–20 per squama, usually visible both apically and as a swelling on the lower surface, apex plane to convex, brown-black to black; ostiole slightly depressed. Centrum obpyriform, 0.25–0.45 mm diam. Exciple brown-black, (25–)30–40(–45) μm thick. Paraphyses evanescent. Periphyses simple to sparingly branched, 40–70 m long. Hymenial algae green, globose (2.5–3.5 μm diam.) to elongate (3–6 × 2–3 μm). Hymenial gel and subhymenium I+ brown-red. Asci bitunicate, monosporous. Ascospores muriform, yellow-brown to brown, ellipsoidal to elongate–ellipsoidal, 15–20(–25) transverse septa and 5–7 longitudinal septa, (47–)74(–112) × (21–)32(–40) μm. Pycnidia absent to numerous, immersed, 0.25– 0.4 mm diam., apex plane to convex. Conidia filiform, 2.5–3 × 0.7– 1 μm.

S: Canterbury (Balmoral, bluffs above Hurunui River, Port Hills Christchurch, E end Rangitata Gorge), Otago (Benmore Dam; Poolburn Reservoir, Conroy's Gully). On soil in schist pavement, and in clay- or soil-filled rock crevices, often with species of Cladonia, Collema, Diploschistes muscorum ssp. bartlettii, Fuscopannaria, Leptogium, Placopsis, Psoroma. Also on exposed soil in Mediterranean habitats in Europe, western North America, Taiwan, Australia and Tasmania (McCarthy 1991c, 2003c, 2006; Breuss 2002c: 187; Aptroot 2003a). First recorded from New Zealand in a collection made by the late Dr James Murray from above the Benmore Dam in March 1961 (McCarthy 1992b: 3), a few months before his death.

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : McCarthy (1991c: 46, fig. 8; 2001d: 165, fig. 47); Letrouit-Galinou & Asta (1994: 276, fig. 3; 278, figs 9, 10; 280, figs 27–29); Eldridge & Tozer (1997: 30, fig. 4.5).

Endocarpon simplicatum is characterised by: the terricolous habit; the monosporous asci; and large, muriform ascospores.