Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2002. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1.
Thallus: small foliose, forming 0.5-1 cm wide rosettes with elongate lobes lobes: up to 2 mm long, c. 0.1-0.3 (-0.5) mm wide, stellately radiating, 0.1-0.3 (-1.0) mm wide at apex upper surface: dark olive-green, sometimes becoming striate; isidia absent lower surface: pale olive, with tufts of pale rhizines Apothecia: deep red-brown, flat or slightly convex, 0.4-0.6 mm in diam.; pseudoexciple: ± pseudoparenchymatous, 60-160 micrometer wide; hymenium: upper part brown and below hyaline, 55-100 micrometer high; subhymenium: colorless and partly pseudoparenchymatous, 70-160 micrometer thick asci: 9-11.5 x 35-66 micrometer, 8-spored ascospores: simple and narrowly ellipsoid when young, 1-septate and fusiform when mature, biseriately arranged within the ascus, colorless, 10-17 (-36) x (1.5-) 3.5-4.5 micrometer Pycnidia: laminal, subglobose, ± 0.2 micrometer in diam.; ostiole: brown conidia: rod-shaped, 3-6 x 1 micrometer Spot tests: all negative Secondary metabolites: none detected. Substrate and ecology: on silicate rocks in relatively moist canyons World distribution: western North America, Mediterranean areas of Europe and northern Africa Sonoran distribution: rare and inconspicuous, only known from a few locations at intermediate elevations, central Arizona, southern California and Baja California. Notes: Sometimes the laciniae may become vertically oriented and thus resemble isidia, but they are still pale on one side (as is the lower thallus surface) and are usually flattened, and consequently can be distinguished from isidia.