Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2002. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1.

Thallus: absent or continuous, immersed in the substrate upper surface: gray, smooth; photobiont: absent Perithecia: hemispherical, black, superficial on the thallus or bark, 0.15-0.4 mm diam ascomatal wall: black, absent below the hamathecium hamathecium: unbranched pseudoparaphyses, not anastomosing; filaments: c. 2 µm wide, cells often swollen (moniliform), not inspersed with oil droplets, but becoming slimy or oily asci: pyriform, c. 45-55 x 15-25 µm, with 8, irregularly arranged ascospores ascospores: hyaline, clavate, 1-septate with a supramedian euseptum, 18-22 x 5-6 µm; walls: not ornamented, with a 1-2 µm thick gelatinous sheath Spot tests: all negative, UV negative Secondary metabolites: none detected. Substrate and ecology: on bark of various woody plants, including Acer, Jatropha, Quercus, Punica and Rhus World distribution: northern temperate or possibly cosmopolitan Sonoran distribution: one of the most common corticolous pyrenocarps in the region, collected in California (including the Channel Islands), Arizona, Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sinaloa.

Thallus not lichenized, bark discolored around the ascocarps.

Ascocarps dark brown or black, 0.1-0.25 mm broad, at first within bark, soon uncovered; excipular wall lacking below, dark above; hyphae between the asci branched and nearly parenchymatous, sometimes appearing moniliform in KOH; spores 8, irregularly arranged, hyaline, 1-septate, elongate-ellipsoid with thin, gelatinous sheath, 15-20 x 4.5-6/xm.

This species is found on a variety of barks, including Acer, Alnus, Betula, and Quercus. It is listed in Zahlbruckner’s Catalogus as cosmopolitan.