TYPE. UNITED STATES. Alabama, Lesquereux s.n. (PC, holotype; FH, H, KIEL, TUR, isotypes).

Description. Lichenized fungus.

Thallus dwarf fruticose, rosette-like, greenish or blackish, forming loose or dense tufts. Filaments rigid with pronounced basal disc, up to 3 mm long and (100)-130-260 μm thick, apical branches often very short, or longer and sickle-curved. Central hyphae with elongated cells, thinner on the margins and oriented vertically or somewhat reticulated. Supportive tissue of a network of thick hyphae, sometimes occupying the entire width of the thread, sometimes only at the edge, especially under the branch forks. Photobioint Stigonema cyanobacteria, cells 7-14.5 x 3.5-9 μm, blue-green. Ascomata pycnoascocarpia, developing from pycnidia, appearing as lateral swellings on branches, to 0.4 mm diam.; hymenium hyaline, 145-165 μm high; hypothecium 20 μm. Asci cylindrical, rounded, 55-110 x 5-11 μm, 8-spored; ascospores simple, hyaline, ovoid, 12-16.5 x 5.5-7 μm. Conidia cylindrical, 2.5-4 x 1-1.5 μm.

Chemistry. No substances detected.

Substrate and Habitat. On wet, siliceous rocks on lake and stream shores or dripping rock walls.

Distribution. North America; in North Carolina found in the upper Piedmont and Blue Ridge ecoregions.

Literature

Bornet, E. (1852) Recherches sur la structure de l'Ephebe pubescens, suivies de remarques sur la synonymie de cette plante. Annales des Sciences Naturelles Botanique 18: 155-171 (original description).

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

Henssen, A. (1963) Eine Revision der Flechtenfamilien Lichinaceae und Ephebaceae. Symbolae Botanicae Upsalienses 18(1): 1-123.