Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2002. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1.
Life habit: lichenized Thallus: umbilicate, squamulose, crustose, subfruticose, subgelatinous when wet, sometimes with marginal soralia surface: blackish-brown to olive-brown, sometimes grayish pruinose, smooth, granulose, rimose or cracked anatomy: ecorticate, homoiomerous, hyphae densely reticulate, sometimes with internal air spaces photobionts: primary one a chroococcoid cyanobacterium, secondary photobiont absent Ascomata: apothecial, laminal on thallus, orbicular, immersed to sessile; margin: indistinct to distinct, with thalloid rim ontogeny: hemiangiocarpous, ascogonia arising in a tangle of generative hyphae beneath the thallus surface ascoma anatomy: exciple: hyaline; epithecium: brownish yellow; hypothecium: hyaline asci: prototunicate, wall thin, nonamyloid, 8-32-spored ascospores: simple, ellipsoid, broadly ellipsoid to globose; 5-14 x 4-9.5 µm, wall thin, hyaline Conidiomata: absent or present, pycnidia laminal, immersed conidia: cylindrical, c. 3 x 1 µm Secondary metabolites: not detected Geography: in arid, semi-arid to warm temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere Substrate: soil crust over limestone and calcareous rock or on siliceous rock. Notes: The subgelatinous thallus consistency and the occasional presence of soredia are similar to Peltula and Heppia, but its unstratified anatomy with reticulately arranged hyphae is similar to the Lichinaceae.