Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, 26 km W of Owaka, S of the summit of Hunter's Hills, 46º28's, 169º21'E, 450 m, on decorticated stump in dense Nothofagus menziesii cold temperate rainforest, 13.i.1981, L. Tibell 10328 – UPS.

Description : Saprophytic or parasymbiontic on lichen thalli or parasitic on free-living algal colonies. Apothecia 0.8–3.1 mm tall, with a long to medium, often flexuous stalk. Capitulum hemispherical to subspherical, 0.16–0.4 mm diam., black. Stalk blood-red to grey-brown, uppermost parts of stalk strongly red, matt, shining or with a slight crystalline pruina. Epithecium pale greenish brown. Hypothecium 100–165 μm thick, hyaline above, with red crystals below. Red-pigmented parts of apothecium K+ aeruginose. Asci 30–52 × 2.7–3.3 μm, cylindrical, with thickened apex penetrated by a fine canal. Ascospores uniseriate, pale-brown, ellipsoidal with rounded ends, simple, 6.1–8.3 × 2.2–3.3 μm, smooth or minutely ornamented.

N: Wellington (Ohakune). S: Nelson (Lake Rotoroa), Canterbury (Arthur's Pass, Hawdon River, Woolshed Hill), Otago (Hunter's Hill W of Owaka), Southland (Oblong Hill near Lake Hauroko). On lignum of beech (N. fusca, N. solandri) and broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis), associating with species of Chaenotheca and Microcalicium, 150–750 m. Known also from Tasmania, the far east of Russia, from South America and rarely from Scandinavia (Tibell 1987, 1998a, 1999c; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Hermansson & Pystina 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Tibell (1987: 126, fig. 90; 1999c: 86).

Chaenothecopsis haematopus is characterised by: the large ascomata and the flexuous, often dark-red stalks. The simple, pale-brown, smooth ascospores with rounded apices, and the K+ aeruginose reaction of its red pigment are also characteristic, as is its unique anamorph, Catenomycopsis, which was obtained in culture from Swedish collections (Tibell 1999c: 43).