Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lecidea chalybeia Borrer in W.J. Hooker & J. Sowerby, Engl. Bot. Suppl. 1: tab. 2687 (1831).

Description : Thallus effuse, irregularly spreading, 5–10(–15) mm diam., verrucose-areolate, without a marginal prothallus. Areolae 0.05–0.1(–0.2) mm diam., grey-green, fawnish or olivaceous, slightly glossy. Apothecia lecideine, scattered, solitary to crowded, sessile, constricted at base, round to irregular or contorted through mutual pressure, 0.1–0.8(–1) mm diam.; disc plane to subconvex, coal-black, matt, epruinose, proper margin persistent, thin, raised, entire, concolorous with disc. Hymenium 50–60 μm tall, colourless below, upper parts blue-green; epithecium 10–15(–20) μm thick, olive-green or brownish to greenish black. Hypothecium red-brown above, dark-brown or brown-black below. Asci clavate, 35–40 × 12–13.5 μm. Ascospores colourless, oblong-ovoid, 10–13.5 × 5–6.5 μm.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

S: Southland (Riverton, Borland Saddle). On chippings in tar-seal at edge of driveway, and on exposed, subalpine, granite outcrops above treeline (with Opegrapha devia and species of Placopsis). Probably much more common in urban environments than records at present show. In the Northern Hemisphere it colonises slightly basic to acid, often eutrophicated rocks (both sea-shore and inland), railway bridges, iron-work, dust-impregnated wood (Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Gilbert 2000; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004). Known also from Australia (McCarthy 2003c, 2006), and South Georgia (Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Kilias (1981: 272, fig. 13; 273, fig. 14; 315, fig. 23; 428, fig. 36; 431, figs 43, 44; 435, fig. 63; 437, fig. 69; 438, fig. 73); Wirth (1987: 115); Hertel & Rambold (1988: 301, fig. 18); Foucard (1990: pl. 82); Dobson (2000: 106; 2005: 116).

Catillaria chalybeia is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; the verrucose-areolate thallus; sessile, coal-black, lecideine apothecia with a thin, persistent proper margin concolorous with disc; a pigmented epithecium, green-black, olive-green to brownish; a colourless hymenium; a red-brown hypothecium; and colourless, oblong-ovoid ascospores, 10–13.5 × 5–6.5 μm.