Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2002. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1.
Thallus: fruticose, attached by a holdfast; main branches: terete to complanate; terminal branches: terete, up to 1 mm thick and up to 2 mm broad, almost always with terete lateral ecorticate branchlets lobe surface: brown or grayish brown to pale gray, smooth with a thin white pruina; prothallus: not seen cortex: with smooth, brown or hyaline hyphae, 50-70 µm thick; gel: clear, hyaline, also as epicortex with uppermost 2-3 µm granular layer medulla: white to brown, coalescent, composed of mainly periclinally arranged hyphae, with hyaline thallus gel; hyphae: hyaline, ± conglutinated Ascomata: 0.8-3.0 mm diam; epithecium: 50-60 µm; hymenium: 100-120 µm high; paraphysoids: sparsely branched, hyaline, c. 1 µm in diam.; hypothecium c. 400 µm thick, often extending down into medulla asci: clavate, 70-80 x 15-18 µm ascospores: fusiform, (18-) 21-25 (-28) x (5-) 6-8 (-9) µm Pycnidia: black, solitary, lateral, immersed, often in small protuberances, c. 0.3 mm diam. conidia: filiform, (8-) 11-15 (-18) x < 1 µm Spot tests: thallus K-, C-, KC-, P+ orange Secondary metabolites: fumarprotocetraric acid, protocetraric acid and succinprotocetraric acid, one unknown depside and one unknown other substance. Substrate and ecology: near the ocean on trees and rocks, preferably on the vertical, north-facing sides World and Sonoran distribution: from Monterey, San Francisco and Marin Counties in California and, thus, lies on the border of the Sonoran region. Notes: Dendrographa alectoroides is distinguished from D. leucophaea by its more terete branches (especially the terminal parts). Sometimes, especially in Dendrographa alectoroides f. alectoroides, the main branches are distinctly flattened. In these cases a determination is best achieved by checking the lateral branchlets, which are always terete in Dendrographa alectoroides, and the medulla, which is always coalescent. Transitional forms with ascomata are more common in Dendrographa alectoroides f. parva (see below) than in D. leucophaea f. minor.