Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus fruticose, 7-15(-20) cm tall, attached to the substrate by a strong, rootlike holdfast. Branches terete, erect, usually fertile, branching irregular or subdichotomous, with numerous short, coralloid, phyllocladioid branchlets arranged in fasciculate groups. Surface of branches smooth, pale grey-green or whitish, often irregularly cracked. Cephalodia occurring with phyllocladial branchlets, small, cylindrical, containing a blue-green alga (Scytonema). Apothecia terminal, common, subglobose to globose, mazaedium apical, globose, black. Asci cylindrical containing 8 spores in a row. Ascospores spherical to broadly ellipsoid, dark blue to dark brown.

The monotypic genus Thysanophoron is endemic to New Zealand. Although included in Sphaerophorus by some workers [Murray T.R.S.N.Z. (Bot.) 88: 192-193 (1960); Ohlsson "A revision of the lichen genus Sphaerophorus". University microfilms, Xerox Co. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 270 pp. (1973)] the presence of cephalodia and the distinctive holdfast sufficiently distinguish it from other species in this genus [Sato Miscnea bryol. lichenol. Nichinan 4: 48 (1966)]. It is included in the family Sphaerophoraceae.