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

Thallus: superficial, thin (up to c. 25 µm thick) surface: brown, matt when dry, shiny and translucent when wet; with abundant carbonaceous ridges and punctae (jugae); jugae: convex, branched and irregularly stellate, typically 0.1 x 0.2-0.5 mm, flattening and broadening at the thallus margin to form a distinct edge photobiont: a cyanobacterium, Hyella; cells: orange Perithecia: immersed in the black ridges, 0.1-0.3 mm diam., flattened and circular, with deeply depressed ostioles, base blackened involucrellum: carbonized, extending part way down over the exciple and spreading; exciple: hyaline to pale hamathecium: much-branched paraphysoids, persistent asci: obclavate to subcylindrical, c. 8-spored ascospores: narrowly ovoid, hyaline, 1-septate, cells unequal in size, 11.5-18 (-20) x 3.5-7 µm Pycnidia: immersed in the black ridges conidia: not observed Spot tests: all negative Secondary metabolites: none detected. Substrate and ecology: on siliceous or ultramafic rocks in the littoral zone World distribution: Europe, North and South America Sonoran distribution: southern California (Santesson 1992). Notes: The species is well characterized by the superficial ridges, which often give the thallus an effigurate appearance.