TYPE. UNITED STATES. Massachusetts, Nonquitt, 1874, H. Willey s.n. (US 00479175, isotype)
Description.Life form. Lichenized fungus.
Thallus fruticose, erect, rigid, up to 7 cm diam., yellowish green, base blackening. Branches solid, round in section, often with short, thorn-like side branches; surface smooth to tuberculate with raised pseudocyphellae; apices filiform. Vegetative diaspores absent. Medulla white; photobiont trebouxioid alga. Ascomata lecanorine apothecia, abundant, terminal or subterminal on branch tips, 1-3 mm diam.; disk concave to convex, pale buff color. Epihymenium yellow-brown; hymenium hyaline, clear; hypothecium hyaline. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, ellipsoid, 1-septate, 10-15 x 4-6μm.