TYPE. CANADA. Nova Scotia, Queens County, Kejimkujik National Park, E side of Kejimkujik Lake, ~700 m SE of N end of Peter Point, on Fagus grandifolia, elev. ~100 m, 1989, S. Ekman L1050 (LD, holotype; CANL, isotype).

Life form. Lichenized fungus  

Description. [modified from Ekman 1996] Thallus crustose, granular, pale gray or greenish-gray; granules 36-97 μm, globose or irregular; prothallus lacking or present between granules, endosubstratal, white to pale gray. Photobiont chlorococcoid alga; cells ~15 μm diam. Ascomata biatorine apothecia, 0.5-1.1 mm diam., ± plane becoming convex, with thin to thick white pruina on disk and margin of some apothecia; disk orange-brown to red- or purple-brown, darkening with age; margin concolorous with disk, level with or raised above disk, becoming excluded. Exciple 52-103 μm wide laterally, usually with radiating crystals (up to 1 μm); rim pale brown orange with layer of enlarged cells along edge. Hypothecium brown orange, darker than exciple; hymenium 68-97 μm high; epithecium indistinct; paraphyses simple or apically branched, 1.2-1.6 μm wide, slightly or not swollen, not pigmented. Asci clavate, 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, acicular, straight or curved, 32-69 x 2-4 μm. Conidiomata pycnidia, ± immersed, pale orange brown above, 150 μm diam.; conidia curved, simple, 10-15 x 0.5 μm.

Chemistry. Atronorin in thallus; apothecial pigments K+ purple-red, N-.

Substrate and habitat. Corticolous, preferably on older trees with coarse bark in humid habitats.

Distribution. Eastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge and Coastal Plain ecoregions; expected throughout.

Literature

Ekman, S. (1996) The corticolous and lignicolous species of Bacidia and Bacidina in North America. Opera Botanica 127: 1-148.