Flora of New Zealand Series

Lichen confinis O. F. Müll., Fl. dan. 5: tab. 879, 2 (1782).

Lichina pygmaea var. intermedia Church. Bab., Fl. N.Z. 2: 311 (1855).

L. pygmaea var. intermedia. Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, on coastal rocks. Dr Lyall, 1850, BM!

Thallus fruticose, erect, tufted, in clumps, or forming ± coalescing swards 1-4(-8) cm diam. Lobes flattened, ± palmately divided, becoming terete only near apices, to 10 mm tall and 0.1-0.2 mm thick, irregularly branched, apices blunt ± furcate, shiny dark brown to black or olive-greenish, gelatinous when wet, with a well-defined cortex of cuboid-rectangular cells. Apothecia terminal, globose or flask-like, 0.1-0.5 mm diam., disc concave. Ascospores broadly to narrowly ellipsoid 18-22.4 × 6.4-9.6 µm, straight, apices rounded.

N: Northland to Wellington. S: Nelson to Southland. St: A: Widely distributed on coastal rocks.

Cosmopolitan