TYPE. FRANCE. Ad juniperos silvae Fontainebleau, W. Nylander s.n. (H-NYL 25967, lectotype; M M0207676, type).

Description. Life form: Lichenized fungus.

Thallus crustose, grayish green, thin, effuse to areolate, verruculose, corticate, 60-130 μm thick (70-300 μm in Australian material); vegetative diaspores absent. Cortical layer hyaline, 10-18 μm thick; medulla thin; photobiont chlorococcoid alga, cells 9-15 x 9-12 μm. Ascomata lecanorine apothecia, abundant, scattered to aggregated, sessile, constricted at base, 0.6-1.5 mm diam.; margin thin, subcrenulate; disk brown to blackish, epruinose of lightly pruinose, flat to slightly convex. Thalline exciple hyaline to yellowish, 40-95 μm laterally, 80-150(-180) μm below; epithecium brown, 10-15 μm thick; hymenium hyaline, inspersed with oil droplets, 60-80(-100) μm high; hypothecium hyaline, 30-75 μm thick (100-120 μm in Australian material). Paraphyses simple, 2-3 μm thick, tips slightly swollen, pale brown. Asci cylindrical-clavate, 38-60 x 9-15 μm, (55–90 × 15–20 µm in Australian material) 80-110-spored; ascospores hyaline, oblong-ellipsoid, 1-2-celled, (3.5-)5-7(-8) x 2.5-3.5 μm.

Chemistry. Spot tests:  UV-, K- or + yellowish, KC-, PD-; epithecium K+ violet brown. Amyloidity: medulla I-; ascus walls I+ deep blue turning vinose. TLC: sekikaic acid with traces of homosekikaic and 4’-O-demethylsekikaic acids detected.

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on smooth bark of trees and shrubs (hardwood and conifer).

Distribution. Cosmopolitan; in North Carolina found throughout.

Literature

Kantvilas, G. (2004) Fuscideaceae. Flora of Australia 56A: 173–187.

Nylander, W. (1855) Essai d'une nouvelle classification des lichens (second mémoire). Mémoires de la Société Impériale des Sciences Naturelles de Cherbourg 3: 161-202 (original description as Lecanora constans).

Singh, K.P. (1980). Lichen genus Maronea in India. Geophytology 10(1): 34-36.