TYPE. “Habitat in Peruvia, ad corticem Cinchonae lancifoliae (Mutis).” (Fée 1825). PERU. Anonymous s.n. (G G-G-243237/1, lectotype designated by B. Staiger 2000).
Description.Life form: lichenized fungus.
Thallus crustose, continuous, whitish, 30-45 μm thick; surface smooth to verrucose, epruniose. Photobiont trentepohlioid alga. Ascomata lirellae, abundant, immersed to barely prominent, round to short elongate, often lobed or short-branched, 0.3-2 mm × 0.1-0.4 mm; labia thin, indistinct; disk expanded, flat, covered by a thick, bright red, mealy, K+ greenish pruina. Exciple thin, poorly developed, hyphae interspersed with red pigment, hyphal walls +/-carbonized as yellowish-brown; epithecium granular, reddish brown; hymenium clear, 60-90 μm high, I+ dark blue or blue-green; paraphyses 1.5-2.0 μm thick, anastomosing, tips brown. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, 6-10-celled, 25-40(-45) x 6-9(-10) μm, I+ blue-violet.
Chemistry. Apothecial pigment isohypocrelin; thallus spot tests negative; no substances detected by TLC.
Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on trees.
Distribution. Neotropical, north into southeastern North America; in North Carolina found in the Coastal Plain and Blue Ridge ecoregions, expected throughout.
Literature
Bungartz, F. Lücking, R. & Aptroot, A. (2009) The lichen family Graphidaceae (Ostropales, Lecanoromycetes) in the Galapagos Islands. Nova Hedwigia90: 1-44.
Fée, A.L.A. (1825) Essai sur les cryptogames des écorces exotiques officinales. 180 pp. (original description as Graphis cinnabarina).
Staiger B. (2002) Die Flechtenfamilie Graphidaceae. Studien in Richtung einer natürlicheren Gliederung. Bibliotheca Lichenologica85: 1–526.