TYPE. UNITED STATES. Kansas, Chase County, on lime rocks, 1871, E. Hall s.n. (FH-Tuck., holotype; US, isotype).

Description. Life form: lichenized fungus.

Thallus areolate to umbilicate-squamulose, forming extensive mats, gelatinous when wet; squamules erect, black, sometimes sublobed. Vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont chlorococcoid cyanobacterium. Ascomata apothecoid, laminal, 0.5-0.8 mm diam.; disk convex; margin disappearing. Exciple absent; epithecium indistinct; hymenium hyaline, upper part reddish brown to dark brown colored due to decay of ascus walls after spore discharge. Paraphyses distinct. Asci 12-spored; ascospores simple (to thinly 1-septate?), hyaline, ellipsoid to oblong, constricted in center; 5-8 x 3-4 μm.

Chemistry. Not reported.

Substrate and Habitat. Saxicolous on exposed rock.

Distribution. North America; in North Carolina found in the Piedmont ecoregion.

Notes.  This species is described from calcareous rock, but also reported from granitic rock in central North Carolina (Keever et al. 1951) as well as granitic flatrocks in Georgia (McVaugh 1943). No recent reports or records were found from North Carolina.

Literature

Keever, C., H.J. Oosting & L.E. Anderson. (1951) Plant succession on exposed granite of rocky face mountain, Alexander County, North Carolina. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 78(5): 401-421.

McVaugh, R. (1943) The vegetation of the granitic flat-rocks of the southeastern United States. Ecological Monographs 13(2): 119-166.

Tretiach, M. and M. Schultz. (2007) Peccania. Pp. 266-270 in T. H. Nash, III, C. Gries and F. Bungartz. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Volume 3. Lichens Unlimited, Arizona State University, Tempe.

Tuckerman, E. (1877) Observationes lichenologicae No. 4. Observations on North American and other lichens. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 12: 166-185 (original description as Omphalaria kansana).