TYPE. “Habitat ad corticem arboreum in America Septentrionali. Swartz.” (Acharius 1810)

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

Thallus crustose, thin continuous, whitish; prothallus present as black contact lines. Vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont Trebouxia alga. Ascomata scattered, 0.3-0.7 mm diam., perithecoid with a deep, wide opening; disk sunken, pruinose; exipular rim prominent, black, rarely lightly pruinose but often partly covered by thin white thalline layer. Asci 8-spored; ascospores worm-like, over 100 μm long, hyaline, 25-30-celled, constricted at septa

Chemistry. Spot tests negative; no substances detected by TLC.

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on hardwood trees in mixed deciduous forests.

Distribution. Eastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont ecoregions.

Literature

Acharius, E. (1810) Licenographia Universalis. Göttingen. 689 pp (original description as Lecidea urceolata).

Brodo, I.M., S. Duran Sharnoff & S. Sharnoff. (2001) Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 795 pp.

Tuckerman, E. (1847) A synopsis of the lichenes of the northern United States and British America. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1: 195-285.