Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Odontotrema concentricum Stirt., Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 14: 466 (1875).

Holotype. New Zealand. Near Wellington, J. Buchanan 1875 – GLAM. Isotype – WELT.

Description : Thallus greyish-ochraceous, to whitish, thin, continuous. Apothecia in prominent thalline verrucae, closed at first, then opening by a pore. Excipular wall recurved, carbonised, dimidiate. Asci cylindrical, 8-spored. Ascospores cylindrical to elongate–fusiform, colourless, 12–15(–20)-septate, 30–50(–160) × 6–9 (–13) μm.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

N: Wellington. Known only from the type collection.

Endemic

Illustration : Knight (1884: l. XLI, fig. 24 – as Odontotrema concentricum).

Ocellularia concentricum is characterised by: the corticolous habit; 8-spored asci; cylindrical, septate ascospores, 12–20-locular, 30–50(–160) × 6–9(–13) μm; and a negative thallus chemistry. Sherwood-Pike (1987: 151) assigned type material of O. concentricum to a BM specimen ["recd. 11.83, Dr C. Knight"] and mistakenly cites as the basionym the Charles Knight record of Stirton's species (Knight 1884: 406 – not 1883 as cited by Sherwood-Pike) with 12-locular ascospores. Stirton's original description, based on Buchanan's collection 1875 (see above), records the ascospores as cylindrical, with obtuse apices, ranging from "4–6-locular, 40 × 7 μm", to "18–20-locular, 160 × 13 μm".