Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Catapyrenium cinereum (Pers.) Körb. [=Endocarpon cinereum Pers.]

Description : Thallus squamose, attached to substratum by colourless or brownish, rhizohyphae or rhizines. Upper surface dull, pruinose or scabrid, upper cortex paraplectenchymatous. Lower cortex of rounded or angular cells or absent. Photobiont green, chlorococcoid. Ascomata perithecia, immersed in thallus or emergent between squamae. Involucrellum present or absent. Exciple of tangentially arranged, ±elongated cells, pigmented around ostiole, lower parts pale or ±darkened. Hamathecium of periphyses; paraphyses absent. Asci 8-spored, thin-walled, clavate or cylindrical. Ascospores uniseriately or biseriately arranged, colourless, simple, ellipsoidal to ±ovoid-clavate. Conidiomata pycnidia, laminal, immersed in upper surface of squamae or forming spherical projections at their margins. Conidia oblong or short-bacillar.

Chemistry : TLC –, all reactions negative.

The pyrenocarpous genus Catapyrenium is characterised by squamose thalli and perithecia with simple spores. Squamae are attached to the substratum by rhizohyphae and/or rhizines and grow mainly on soil, and less commonly on rock. Species of the genus are found most frequently in high-alpine and semi-arid biomes. Recent accounts of Catapyrenium are those of Breuss (1990a, 1990b, 1991, 1993a, 1993b, 1994a, 1995, 1998a, 1998b, 2000b, 2002b) for Europe, Majorca, South and North Africa, North and South America and the Southern Hemisphere, Harada (1993a) for Japan, and Breuss (2001a) for Australia. Breuss (1996) restricted Catapyrenium to six species (three of which occur in New Zealand), and inroduced four new genera (Involucropyrenium, Anthracocarpon, Heteroplacidium and Clavascidium) in addition to the genus Placidium to accommodate all other taxa formerly included in Catapyrenium  s.lat., his disposition being made on the basis of pycnidial types in combination with perithecial and anatomical features (Breuss 1998b) This disposition was criticised by Nimis (1998: 434) and Coppins (1998: 44), both of whom feel that a division of Catayprenium into subgenera rather than full genera may be more appropriate. Catapyrenium, currently comprising eight recognised taxa, is placed in the family Verrucariaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005).