Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus rosette-forming, squamulose, brown, with a pale lower surface, attached to substrate by brown or black rhizines, without a prothallus. Upper cortex pseudoparenchymatous, medulla of loosely woven hyphae. Photobiont blue-green, Nostoc. Apothecia hemiangiocarpic, with a proper margin, laminal or marginal. Asci cylindrical with apically thickened walls, 8-spored. Ascospores colourless or pale brown, polymorphic, ellipsoid to fusiform, 1- to 3-septate. Paraphyses simple or branched.

Massalongia honouring the Veronese lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo, is a genus of 2 species included in the family Placynthiaceae. It occurs mainly in temperate areas of North America and Europe, [Henssen Can. J. Bot. 41: 1331-1346 (1963)]. One species is known in New Zealand.