Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lecidea contristans Nyl., Flora 48: 354 (1895).

Description : Thallus warty-granular with discrete, globose or glomerulate areolae, whitish to pale- to dark-grey or grey-brown, or green-grey, without a prothallus, spreading irregularly over plant debris on soil, 0.5–1.5 cm diam. Areolae 0.05–0.3(–0.5) mm diam. Photobiont cells large, rounded, 13–16 μm diam. Apothecia prominent, convex to subglobose, sometimes conglomerate, 0.2–0.6(–1) mm diam., black, matt or glossy, epruinose, sometimes with a basal whitish byssoid collar in young fruits; proper margin not apparent, excluded at maturity. Epithecium olive or greenish to 8.5 μm thick. Hymenium 40–60 μm tall, pale aeruginose in upper parts, colourless to pale brownish below. Paraphyses strongly coherent, surrounded by a gel coat, 1.6–2.5(–3) μm diam., not noticeably swollen or pigmented at apices. Hypothecium red-brown to blue-black in thick sections. Asci clavate, 32–40 × 11–13.5 μm. Ascospores ellipsoidal to ovoid-oblong, apices pointed, 1-septate, 11.5–13.5(–15) × 3–5 μm.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

S: Nelson (Mt Arthur), Otago (Old Man Ra.). Growing on decaying plant debris and over bryophytes on soil in snow banks, amongst colonies of Arthrorhaphis alpina and Lepraria incana. An artic-alpine, rather inconspicuous species (Galloway 2003b), known elsewhere from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Iceland, Tasmania, South Orkney Is, South Shetland Is and Antarctica (Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Kantvilas 1994b, 1996b; Gilbert 2000; Scholz 2000; Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004; Søchting et al. 2004).

Bipolar

Catillaria contristans is characterised by: the terricolous habit; the scattered, globose to glomerulate, areolae spreading over decaying vegetation on alpine soils; globose, black apothecia; and colourless 1-septate ascospores, 11.5–13.5(–15) × 3–5 μm.