Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Wawea fruticulosa Henssen & Kantvilas

Description : Thallus small, fruticulose, gelatinous, homoiomerous, corticate. Photobiont cyanobacterial, Nostoc. Ascomata apothecia, lateral, adnate, with a proper margin, ±stipitate at maturity. Asci 8-spored, colourless, 1-septate. Coniodophores in ascocarp primorida, short-celled producing lateral and terminal conidia. Conidia rod-shaped.

The monospecific genus Wawea is accommodated in the family Arctomiaceae (Henssen & Kantvilas 1985; Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It is characterised by its fruticose habit; rugose and corticate lobes; secondarily multi-divided and coalescing apothecia; 1-septate spores; and by the unique initial stage of ascocarp onogeny, which includes simultaneous development of ascogonia as well as short-celled, branched conidiophores producing conidia. W. fruticulosa is known from two alpine localities in New Zealand, but is widespread in Tasmania. The lichenicolous fungus * Rhynchomeliola lichenicola parasitises Tasmanian collections (Henssen & Kantvilas 1985). The genus name Wawea commemorates the American lichenologist W.A.Weber (Boulder, Colorado, USA) who, with D. McVean, first collected Wawea fruticulosa in Tasmania, distributing it in his Lichenes Exsiccati Colorado, Fasc. 12, No. 452 (1975) as Ramalodium succulentum.