Lynge B 1930. Lichens from Novaya Zemlya. In Holtedahl O. Report of the Scientific Results of the Norwegian Expedition to Novaya Zemlya 1921. Oslo. 1-299.
Thallus thin, very inconspicuous, small, diam. ca. 15mm., limited, soft, olive or olive-gray, rimose-areolate, areolae rugose crenate. Hypothallus not seen.
Apothecia soft, dispersed, closely appressed to thallus, diam. 0.4-0.5 mm, epruinose, dark brownish-greyish-black, at first plane, margin indistinct, then more convex. Excipulum pale or moderately dark grayish brownish blackish-red, hypothecium pale-coloured, more yellow-greyish brown or bluish greenish red/greenish-red. Upper hymenium (paraphyses apices capitates) grayish brown-red, beyond hyaline or pale yellow; ca. 80 µ tall. Paraphyses moderately coherent, but not conglutinate. Spores narrowly ellipsoid, elongate-oblong, 9-12 X 3.7-4.5 µ.
Pycnidia small, ostiole only slightly coloured more than thallus. Pycnoconidia long, very arcuate, sometimes almost semicircular, 10-13 µ.
Thallus I ÷, KOH ÷ CaCl2O2÷; hymenium I bluish dirty wine, asci darkly coloured.
In a very thin section the colour of excipulum and hypothecium is so pale that it is more “pallidum” than “obscurum”. This excludes Lecidea fuscorubens with its black excipulum.
It is impossible to measure the true length of the pycnoconidia of this type, the above dimension (10-13 µ) represents the distance between their apices, (a chord, ev. a diameter).
These pycnoconidia refer Lecidea Karaënsis to the Lecidea (Biatora) leucophaea section, and it is nearly related to this species itself.A section of their apothecia shows much the same colours and the same texture; the spores of the latter species are a little larger (TH. M. FRIES Lich. Scand. pag. 460: 9-14 X 5-7 µ, in MALME Lich. suec. No. 646 I measured 11-13 X 4.5-5.5 µ).Lecidea leucophaea has rather firm areolae resting on a distinct black hypothallus, in my species the areolae are very soft and there is no visible hypothallus.More Arctic material alone can show us the degree of variation of Lecidea leucophaea.In the Arctis there are evidently several critical small species of this section.