Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus foliose, dorsiventral, heteromerous, laciniate. Lobes narrow, rather small, deeply divided and often somewhat articulated, flat to ± convex, with or without isidia, with or without soredia. Medulla white, with or without a central chondroid strand. Photobiont green, ? Trebouxia. Lower surface composed of a prominent, brown-black, spongy hypothallus, ± rhizinate. Rhizines stout, simple or sparingly branched, anchored to substrate by an apical, squarrose tuft. Apothecia laminal, sessile or subpedicellate, lecanorine. Asci with a large amyloid tholus. Ascospores numerous, simple, colourless, curved.

Anzia is placed in the monogeneric family Anziaceae. It is a cosmopolitan genus of c. 20 species with the greatest development of taxa in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Japan. Two species are known from New Zealand [Galloway N.Z. J. Bot. 16: 61-270 (1978)], both in section Nervosae.