TYPE. BRAZIL. Glaziou 5082 (M, lectotype designated by Wirth & Hale 1978).

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

[Modified from Wirth & Hale 1978] Thallus crustose, white to off-white, continuous, slightly roughened and matte; vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont trentepohlioid alga. Ascomata lirellae, immersed to erumpent, slender, flexuose, black, frequently branched, usually with a low thalline margin, (1-)2-4(-6) mm long; disk barely visible from above. Exciple black, more or less closed; labia convergent, usually entire but barely striate in occasional sections; hymenium 60-70(-120) μm high. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, 6-9-celled, 6-8 x (20-)23-35(-50) μm.

Chemistry. K+ yellow turning red; norstictic acid; hymenium I-, spores I+ blue.

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on hardwood trees.

Distribution. Pantropical, north into eastern North America; in North Carolina found in Coastal Plain ecoregion.

Literature

Fée, A. (1874) Materiaux pour une flore lichenologique du Bresil, II: Les Graphidées. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France 21: 21-32 (original description as Opegrapha desquamescens).

Wirth, M. & M.E. Hale, Jr. (1978) Morden-Smithsonian Expedition to Dominica: the lichens (Graphidaceae). Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 40: 1-64.