TYPE. UNITED STATES. North Carolina, Jackson County, Nantahala National Forest, Chattooga Wild and Scenic River/Ellicot Rock Wilderness, above Fowler Creek, just S of Bull Pen Road, 35°01′08′′N, 83°06′12′′W, 3000 ft alt., granitic bald on SE-facing slope and adjacent mixed hardwood forest, on Quercus, 18.IX.2006, J.C. Lendemer, S. Beeching & A. Moroz 7765 dupl. (BG, holotype).
Life form. Lichenized fungus.
Description. [Modified from Kistenich et al. 2019] Thallus effuse, crustose, areolate; areoles granular, up to 0.1 mm diam, ± scattered, dull green. Upper surface smooth or slightly pubescent. Vegetative diaspores isidia, densely common, ~ 0.1 mm thick, up to 0.8 mm tall, simple or branched, ± straight concolorous with thallus, smooth, adnate or ascending. Upper cortex poorly defined, up to 15 μm thick, formed by few layers of thin-walled hyphae with rounded lumina, lacking crystals; medulla white; photobiont chlorococcoid alga. Prothallus usually well-developed, white. Ascomata biatorine apothecia, often absent, up to 1 mm diam., round or slightly irregular, mostly solitary; disk weakly to moderately convex, pale to medium brown; margin indistinct, smooth, paler than disk. Exciple: inner yellowish brown, outer paler; hymenium hyaline; not inspersed; hypothecium pale brown; epihymenium hyaline; crystals absent. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, narrowly ellipsoid or fusiform, simple, 7.5 – 11.5 x 2.5 – 3.0 μm. Conidiomata not known.
Chemistry. UV-, K-, KC-, C-, PD-; no lichen substances detected by TLC.
Substrate and habitat. Corticolous on conifers and hardwoods in mesic and humid forests.
Distribution. Pantropical, north to eastern North America and east Asia; in North Carolina found throughout.
Literature
Kistenich, S., M. Bendiksby, S. Ekman, M.E.S Cáceres, J.E. Hernández & E. Timdal (2019) Towards an integrative taxonomy of Phyllopsora (Ramalinaceae). The Lichenologist51(4): 323-392 (original description).