TYPE. CANADA. Ontario, Cochrane District: Kettle Lakes Provincial Park, 33 km ENE of Timmins, 48°34’08”N, 80°52’00”W, along Oh-Say-Yah-WahKaw trail through Pinus banksiana stand, around and over sandy esker ridge, on boulder in forest, 21.VII.2011, I.M. Brodo 33014 (CANL, holotype; NY, isotype).
Life form. Lichenized fungus.
Description. [Modified from protologue (Brodo & Lendemer 2015)] Thallus crustose, pale greenish gray, thin to 0.6 mm thick, continuous, rimose to areolate; areoles flat to convex, becoming verruculose, 0.2-1.0 mm diam. Vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont chlorococcoid alga. Ascomata apothecia, sessile, prominent; margins prominent with 2-4 concentric layers (striate); disk pink to purple, slightly or not pruinose. Exciple dark brown, 35-35(-75) μm thick, composed of melanized cells that slough off toward hypothecium, in 2-3(-6) attached to partially concentric layers, extending downward into the thallus and surrounding a narrow to broad stipe; stipe composed of hyaline, thin-walled hyphae. Hypothecium hyaline, sometimes separated from the top of the stipe by a thin brown excipular layer; hymenium hyaline, (80-)100-135 μm high; epihymenium pale to dark brown. Paraphyses slightly branched, now swollen at tips; asci 8-spored, ± biseriate; ascospores hyaline, ellipsoid, simple, (12.5-)14-18(-21.5) x 6.5-9.5(-11) μm. Conidiomata pycnidia, immersed to prominent; wall brown; ostiole punctiform or broadly open, resembling incipient apothecia, 0.15-0.2 mm diam.; conidia hyaline, bacilliform, 5.2-7.6 x 0.8-1.0 μm.
Chemistry. Thallus UV-, K-, KC+ dark pink, C+ dark pink, PD-; gyrophoric and lecanoric acids as major products detected by TLC.
Substrate and habitat. Saxicolous on pebbles and small rocks in disturbed montane and boreal forests.
Distribution. Eastern North America along the Appalachian mountains as well as eastern Canada; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge and upper Piedmont ecoregions.
Literature
Brodo, I.M. & J.C. Lendemer (2015) A revision of the saxicolous, esorediate species of Ainoa and Trapelia (Baeomycetaceae and Trapeliaceae, lichenized Ascomycota) in North America, with the description of two new species. The Bryologist118(4): 385-399.