Podotara Malcolm & Vězda
Type : Podotara pilophoriformis Malcolm & Vězda
Description : Thallus crustose. Photobiont green, Trebouxia. Ascomata apothecia, globose, pale, stipitate. Asci Mycobilimbia -type, 8-spored. Ascospores multi-locular, colourless, halonate when young, transversely septate, septa with annular thickenings.
The monospecific genus Podotara was collected from the leaves of the endemic gymnosperm Podocarpus totara (the genus name is an acronym created from the name of the phorophyte) in NW Nelson (Malcolm & Vězda 1996b: 264). It has distinctive stalked apothecia, and plurilocular ascospores with characteristically thickened septa, reminiscent of some species of Caloplaca. It is included in Lecanorales, genera incertae sedis (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005).
