TYPE. UNITED STATES. FLORIDA, Sanford, 1924, S. Rapp Sandst., Clad. Exs. 1196 (TUR-VAIN 15236, lectotype designated by Ahti (1993); BM, FH, FR, M, MICH, UPS, US,  isolectotypes).

Description. Lichenized fungus.

Thallus dimorphic. Primary thallus persistent, squamulose, forming depressed mats. Squamules large, 8-10 x 0.5-1 mm, divided into lobes Podetia slender, 0.5-4.5 cm tall, 1-1.5 mm thick, pale gray, irregularly branched; tips blunt, often clustered around a perforated axil but not cup-forming. Podetial surface subcontinuously corticate with minute areolae. Photobiont trebouxioid alga. Ascomata biatorine apothecia, frequent, brown, often clustered; ascospores not reported. Pycnidia either stalked on primary squamules or terminal at podetial tips, approaching cylindrical; pycnidial jelly red; conidia not reported.

Chemistry. K+ yellow, PD+ yellow; thamnolic acid and often barbatic acid.

Substrate and Habitat. On sandy soil, humus, decayed wood or tree trunks, often near seashore.

Distribution. Caribbean and eastern North America; in North Carolina found in Piedmont and Coastal Plain ecoregions. 

Literature

Ahti, T. (1993) Names in current use in the Cladoniaceae (lichen-forming Ascomycetes) in the ranks of genus to variety. Pp. 58-106 in Greuter, W (ed.): NCU-2. Names in Current Use in the Families Trichocomaceae, Cladoniaceae, Pinaceae, and Lemnaceae. Regnum Vegetabile, Koeltz Scientific Books, Königstein, Germany.

Ahti, T. (2000) Cladoniaceae. Flora Neotropica 78: 1-362.

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