Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Anthracothecium doleschallii A.Massal.

Description : Thallus crustose, thin, epi- or endo-phloeodal, often with a corticiform layer; delimited or not by a dark-brown or brown-black prothallus. Photobiont green, Trentepohlia. Ascomata perithecia, immersed in thalline tissue, later emergent, solitary or in groups, not forming a stroma. Ascocarp wall (peridium) carbonised, uniformly thick or slightly thickened near ostiole. Centrum globose, subglobose, rounded to flattened at base I+ vinose red. Paraphyses simple, free. Asci bitunicate, with apical apparatus, 1–8-spored ascospores brown, with thin endospore formation, almost euseptate, (sub-)muriform.

Anthracothecium is a crustose genus of some 70 accepted taxa (Malme 1929; Patwardhan & Makhija 1980; Singh, 1982, 1984, 1985a, 1985b; Harris 1989; Aptroot 1991a; Awasthi 1991) included in the family Pyrenulaceae (Harris 1989; Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). Species are mainly corticolous, from lowland and coastal tropical and subtropical regions. One species is known from New Zealand, but more taxa should be looked for especially in northern coastal forest habitats.