TYPE. COUNTRY UNKNOWN, Locality unknown, s.d., Acharius s.n. (H-ACH, lectotype designated by L. Tibell)

Life form. Lichenized fungus.

Thallus crustose, usually covering surface, ecorticate, granular-verrucose, pale whitish grey, often with limited yellow to rusty reddish patches, rarely immersed; photobiont Trebouxia alga. Ascomata stalked apothecia 1-2 mm tall, 7-19 times as long as width of stalk; stalk 0.07-0.15 mm diam., shiny, black, without pruina; capitulum broadly to narrowly obconical; true exciple well-developed, without pruina; maezedium (ascospore mass) pale brown, often with a yellow tinge. Asci cylindrical to narrowly clavate, 8-spored, in 1-2 rows, soon dissolving. Ascospores 7-8 µm diam., globose, when mature coarsely and irregularly fissured.

Chemistry. Yellow-red, quinonoid pigment in thallus, K+ deep red; ascospore mass with yellowish K+ red pigment.

Substrate and Habitat. On acid bark, decorticate tree stumps and wooden fences

Distribution. Cosmopolitan; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.

Literature

Giavarini, G., O.W. Purvis & P.W. James (2009). Chaenotheca (Th. Fr.) Th. Fr. (1860). Pp. 297-303 in Smith, C.W., A. Aptroot, B.J. Coppins, A. Fletcher, O.L. Gilbert, P.W. James & P.A. Wolseley (eds.). The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. The British Lichen Society, London.

Smith, J.E & J. Sowerby (1813). English Botany; or, colored figures of British plants, with their essential characters synonyms and place of growth: to which will be added, occasional remarks. Taylor & Company, London (original description as Calicium ferruginea).