Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus episubstratic, verrucose or rarely almost immersed, pale straw yellow. Apothecia 0.4-0.9 mm high, epruinose or sometimes with a faint greyish pruina on lower side of excipulum, 3-7 times as high as width of stalk. All parts of apothecium I-. Capitulum obovoid to lenticular, 0.10-0.15 mm diam. Excipulum of dark brown, elongate to almost isodiametric interwoven hyphae with thickened walls. Hypothecium dark brown, convex. Inner surface of excipulum sometimes lined by a layer of minute crystals that appear at the edge of the excipulum as a narrow, yellow zone surrounding the mazaedium. Stalk 0.10-0.15 mm diam., shining, black, epruinose, consisting of dark brown, periclinally arranged, intricately branched hyphae. Outermost layer pale, consisting of unsclerotized, irregularly arranged hyphae. Surface of stalk covered by a very thin, gelatinous I-, layer. Asci cylindrical with uniseriate spores, 40-51 × 4-5 µm. Ascospores ellipsoid, 10.5-14 × 4.5-7.5 µm, with minutely uneven and cracked surface. Chemistry: Thallus containing arthothelin, thuringione and thiophanic acid. Thallus K+ dull yellow, C+ orange, KC+ orange to red, Pd-, UV+ dark orange.

N: North Auckland, South Auckland, Gisborne, Wellington. Rather common on bark of Metrosideros, Podocarpus totara and Vitex and decorticated stumps of hardwoods and podocarps. In open situations mainly in humid coastal forests but scattered localities also on the Central Plateau, s.l. to 700 m.

Cosmopolitan

A species of wide distribution in Tropical - Warm Temperate Zones of both hemispheres.