Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Pocsia marattiae Vězda

Description : Thallus crustose, spreading, greyish white, continuous or in small patches, without a delimiting prothallus. Photobiont green, Trentepohlia. Ascomata perithecia, covered by photobiont-containing tissue, wall simple, entire, paraplectenchymatous, darkened to hyaline. Involucrellum absent. Periphyses persistent, well-developed. Paraphyses and paraphysoids absent. Asci fissitunicate, cylindrical-clavate, apices thickened, 8-spored. Ascospores colourless, elongate, slightly curved, apices rounded, transversely 3–15-septate. Conidiomata pycnidia. Conidia simple, curved-acicular.

Pocsia is a genus of c. 7 obligately foliicolous lichens (Vězda 1975, 1982b; Vězda & Kalb 1991; Lücking 1992; Farkas & Sipman 1997; McCarthy 1999, 2003c, 2006; Lücking & Kalb 2000; Malcolm & Malcolm 2001; McCarthy & Lücking 2001) of uncertain affinities, included in Ascomycota incertae sedis (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It was established on P. marattiae Vězda, a curious species distinguished by a lack of paraphyses, except in very young perithecia. All known species appear to lack paraphyses, but have persistent periphyses. It is doubtfully distinct from Macentina (q.v.) (McCarthy 2001k: 198). One species is known from New Zealand (Malcolm & Malcolm 2001: 52).