Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Dirinaria picta (Sw.) Clem. & Shear [Lichen pictus Sw.]

Description : Flora (1985: 162).

Dirinaria is a mainly tropical genus with some 35 species known worldwide (Awasthi 1975; Swinscow & Krog 1978a, 1988; Aptroot 1987; Kalb 2001b, 2004b; Kirk et al. 2001) and is included in the family Physciaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It is distinguished from other genera in the family by the following combination of characters: Apothecia with a thalline exciple; a dark-brown to black hypothecium; epithecium K− (Pyxine is K+ purple); thalline lobes that are generally closely adjoined for most of their length; an absence of rhizines; thalli are ±orbicular and closely appressed to the substratum; lobes commonly have surface pruina (Aptroot & Berendsen 1989), and occasionally linear, marginal pseudocyphellae (although not as distinctly as in Pyxine); ascospores brown, thick-walled, bilocular, Dirinaria -type; a trebouxioid photobiont. Three species are known from northern New Zealand.