Lempholemma Körb.
Type : Lempholemma compactum Körb. [=L. polyanthes (Bernh.) Malme]
Description : Thallus crustose, squamulose foliose to minutely fruticose, blackish to dark-green or olivaceous, gelatinous when moist, homoiomerous, without a well-defined cortex. Hormocystangia present or absent. Photobiont Nostoc in chains. Ascomata apothecia, laminal, globose, immersed to sessile; thalline exciple conspicuous; disc pore-like sometimes expanding; proper exciple thin and inconspicuous. Hymenium colourless without a distinct epithecium. Hypothecium thin, colourless. Hamathecium of scanty to numerous, simple to sparingly branched paraphyses, apices not swollen. Asci cylindrical–clavate, without a distinct apical structure, 8-spored. Ascospores thin-walled, ellipsoidal to globose, simple, colourless, often with a distinct gelatinous perispore. Conidiomata pycnidia, laminal, globose, immersed. Conidia, simple, colourless, curved.
Lempholemma is a poorly known, heterogeneous genus of blackish, gelatinous species characterised by simple ascospores; an homoiomerous thallus and Nostoc as photobiont (Kantvilas & Jørgensen 1998). The genus, included in the family Lichinaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), comprises some 30 species, mainly from the Northern Hemisphere (Kirk et al. 2001; Schultz 2004b) where they are commonly found on calcareous rocks. As currently circumscribed the genus is heterogeneous (Coppins et al. 1992a). Earlier, Henssen (1969b: 103) reported that two methods of ascocarp development occur in the genus: species with pycnoascocarps and species with hormocystangia. Hormocystangia are diaspores, comprising a few cyanobacterial cells and fungal hyphae (Degelius 1945). Lempholemma is discussed by Henssen (1968, 1969a), Schiman-Czeika (1988), and Kantvilas & Jørgensen (1998) who give data on the sole species present in Australia. The genus is very poorly known in New Zealand with one species recorded here.
