TYPE. GUINEA. “Habitat ad corticem Codarii acutifolii Afz. (Dialii Guineensi Willd.) aliarumque arborum in Guinea” (Acharius 1814), E. Acharius s.n. (H-ACH 887, holotype).

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

[Largely translated and modified from Staiger (2002)] Thallus crustose, ochre, olive or brownish, mostly smooth or somewhat gristly with a waxy surface, but also creamy-whitish, dull, slightly unevenly warty or somewhat "flaky", ~50-150 µm thick in section; vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont trentepohlioid alga. Ascomata lirellae, immersed, crowded-clustered in pseudostromata; individual lirellae ovoid to lobed to elongate, simple to branched, 1-10 x 1 mm; surface between lirellae whitish to brownish-gray, granular; disk brownish. Pseudostroma is composed largely of carbonized exciplular tissue, with embedded crystals in edges and upper surface. Hymenium hyaline, not inspersed, 70-100 µm high; epihymenium brown, about 5 µm high. Paraphyses 2-3 µm thick, with apical side branches, tips pigmented brown. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, transversely septate, 8-13-celled, 28-59 (-60) × 7-10 µm, perispore present, up to 5 µm thick.

Chemistry. No substances detected by TLC; hymenium I+ faint violet or grey-blue; spores I+ blue-violet.

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on hardwood trees.

Distribution. Pantropical, north to eastern North America; in North Carolina found in throughout.

Literature

Acharius, E. (1814) Synopsis Methodica Lichenum. Lund. 392 pp (original description).

Staiger B. (2002) Die Flechtenfamilie Graphidaceae. Studien in Richtung einer natürlicheren Gliederung. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 85: 1–526.