TYPE. NEW ZEALAND. On bark, C. Knight 67:23 (WELT, lectotype, designated by Hayward 1977).

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

Thallus crustose, whitish, whitish gray or creamy yellow, continuous, smooth to uneven, dull; vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont trentepohlioid alga. Ascomata lirellae, scattered or clustered, 0.8-2.0 x 0.15-0.3 mm, erumpent to prominent, with lateral thalline margin, short to elongate, straight or slightly curved, usually unbranched; labia convergent, entire; disk concealed (lineola-morph). Exciple laterally, sometimes almost completely carbonized; hymenium clear, 80-100 μm high; paraphyses ~1.5 µm thick, tips hyaline or slightly browned. Asci 6-8-spored; ascospores hyaline, transversely 5–9-septate, (19–)24–30 × 6–8 μm.

Chemistry. Norstictic acid (major), connorstictic acid (minor).

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on hardwood trees, also saxicolous.

Distribution. Pantropical; in North Carolina found in the Coastal Plain ecoregion.

Literature

Archer, A.W. (2001) The lichen genus Graphis (Graphidaceae) in Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 14: 245-271.

Kalb, J., R. Lücking & K. Kalb. (2018) The lichen genera Allographa and Graphis (Ascomycota: Ostropales, Graphidaceae) in Thailand – eleven new species, forty-seven new records and a key to all one hundred and fifteen species so far recorded for the country. Phytotaxa 377(1): 1-83.

Knight, C. (1884) On the Lichenographia of New Zealand. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 16: 400-408 (original description).

Lücking, R., A.W. Archer & A. Aptroot (2009) A world-wide key to the genus Graphis (Ostropales: Graphidaceae). Lichenologist 41(4): 363-452.

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

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