Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Opegrapha elegans Sm. in J.E. Smith & J. Sowerby, Engl. Bot. 26: t. 1812 (1807).

Description : Flora (1985: 174).

Chemistry : Medulla K+ yellow→red, C−, KC+ red, Pd + orange; containing norstictic acid.

N: Auckland (Waitakere Ra.). Common on smooth-barked trees in this locality but not yet recorded elsewhere (Hayward 1977; Bartlett 1988). Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, California, Dominica and Australia (Wirth & Hale 1978; Purvis et al. 1992; Santesson 1993; Scholz 2000; Staiger 2002; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004; Staiger & Kalb 2004c).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Hayward (1977: 569, fig. 4B; 570, fig. 5E); Dobson (1992: 149; 2000: 163; 2005: 182); Staiger (2002: 232, fig. 73; 233, fig. 74; 499, fig. 237).

Graphis elegans is characterised by: the corticolous habit; the sulcate, carbonised proper exciple that is furrowed like a ploughed paddock; by the 9–13-locular ascospores, 35–60 × 9–12 μm; and norstictic acid (K+ yellow→red) as the major secondary metabolite.