Cryptolechia A.Massal.
Thallus crustose, spreading, corticate or decorticate, in irregular patches on bark. Photobiont green, Trentepohlia, cells 5-12 µm diam. Apothecia rounded, immersed to semi-immersed, urceolate, disc concave to plane, smooth, red-brown to yellowish-brown, to pale yellowish- or whitish-pink, margins entire or crenulate, pale whitish, translucent when wet. Hymenium to 100 µm tall. Paraphyses straight, simple or dichotomously branched towards apices, septate, apices subglobose, swollen. Asci cylindrical to clavate, commonly 12-spored, rarely 8- or 16-spored. Ascospores oblong-ellipsoid or fusiform, apices obtuse, 3- to many-septate. Asci and hymenial gelatine I+ blue.
Cryptolechia [Hawksworth and Dibben Lichenologist 14: 98-100 (1982)] is a genus of mainly tropical lichens containing c. 8 species and included in the family Gyalectaceae [Vězda Folia geobot. phytotax. 4: 443 (1969)]. One species is known from New Zealand, although the genus is still very much in need of collection and study here.
