TYPE. CANADA. British Columbia, Port McNeill (Nimpkish River), on branches of Picea sitchensis, 31.III.1965, A. Funk s.n. (DAVFP 20422).

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

Thallus crustose, dispersed thin, membraneous; vegetative diaspores absent; hyphophores (stalked conidiomata) pale to black, erect, 0.3-1 mm tall, setiform (bristle-like), somewhat bent at tip. Photobiont trebouxioid alga. Ascomata occasional, zeorine apothecia, adnate, 0.2-0.3 mm diam.; thalline margin thin, lacking algae; excipular margin reduced; disk epruinose. Hymenium hyaline, of paraphyses in gel; paraphyses slender, branching and anastomosing. Asci thin-walled, somewhat thickened at tip, 2-8-spored; ascospores hyaline, ellipsoid, 6-celled, 14-20 × 5-6.5 μm.

Chemistry. Hymenial gel and ascus walls I-.

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on hardwoods and conifers in humid forests.

Distribution. Pacific northwestern and eastern North America; in North Carolina found in Blue Ridge ecoregion.

Literature

Bjork, C.J. & T. Goward. (2010) Epiphytic Crustose Lichens of the Clearwater Valley, British Columbia. Hosted by WaysOfEnlichenment.net (accessed 31 Dec 2022).

Funk, A. (1973) Microlychnus gen. nov., a lichenized hyphomycete from western conifers. Canadian Journal of Botany 51(6): 1249-1250 (original description as Microlychnus epicorticis).

Lücking, R., W.R. Buck & E. Rivas Plata. (2008) The lichen family Gomphillaceae (Ostropales) in eastern North America, with notes on hyphophore development in Gomphillus and Gyalideopsis. The Bryologist 110(4): 622-672.