Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Polyblastia cupularis A.Massal.

Description : Flora (1985: 410). See also McCarthy (2001e: 171).

Polyblastia is a cosmopolitan genus of c. 80 species (Kirk et al. 2001), included in the family Verrucariaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It is heterogeneous and much in need of revision with several taxa not well delimited (Nimis 1993). The characteristic features of Polyblastia are: the pyrenocarpous ascomata; paraphyses dissolving early into a gelatinous mass; persistent periphyses forming a fringe around interior of ostiole; unitunicate asci Verrucaria - type; colourless or brown, muriform ascospores; protococcoid or other non-trentepohlioid photobiont; and an absence of algal cells in the hymenium (Swinscow 1971; Harris 1973; Purvis & James 1992d; McCarthy 1995c). It is closely related to Staurothele (q.v.), which has characteristic algal cells present in the hymenium. Three species are recorded from New Zealand (McCarthy & Johnston 1995; Fryday 2000a), though the genus is still very poorly understood and collected here.