Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2007. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 3.
Life habit: lichenized Thallus: crustose, ± granulose to areolate, small-squamulose or forming minute cushions, attached by tiny umbilicus, gelatinous when wet thallus surface: black, rarely somewhat grayish pruinose, ± smooth, granulose or sulcate thallus anatomy: ecorticate, homoiomerous, loose hyphal network surrounding large photobiont cells; hyphae short-celled to elongated photobionts: primary one a chroococcoid cyanobacterium, secondary photobiont absent Ascomata: apothecioid, laminal or terminal on tip of small, erect lobules, orbicular, semi-immersed to sessile, with distinct, persisting thalloid rim ontogeny: hemiangiocarpous, ascogonia arising in a tangle of generative hyphae beneath the thallus surface exciple: absent or present, thin, IKI-, epithecium: hyaline or yellowish brown, K-, hymenium: hyaline, IKI+ blue; paraphyses: distinctly septate, sparsely branched and anastomosing, terminal cells clavate; hypothecium: hyaline asci: subclavate, prototunicate, thin walled, IKI-, 8-32-spored ascospores: hyaline, simple, broad ellipsoid to globose, 5-12.5 x 5-7.5 µm, thin-walled Conidiomata: pycnidial, laminal or terminal, immersed to semi-immersed, hyaline; walls: simple or sometimes becoming convolute; conidiophores: simple, cells elongated conidia: ellipsoid or bacilliform, simple, 3-5 x c. 1.5 µm, acrogenous Secondary metabolites: not detected Geography: world-wide in arid, semi-arid and Mediterranean regions Substrate: on calciferous, siliceous, and volcanic rocks. Notes: Anema, Paulia and Synalissa are similar in their loosely reticulate hyphal arrangement and their large photobiont cells surrounded by a thick gelatinous sheath. However, in Anema the ascogones are formed beneath pycnidia and a thin proper exciple is always present. Paulia lacks a proper exciple and its ascospores are usually thick-walled. Polysporous asci are unknown in Paulia; whereas they occur in Synalissa symphorea, a species not yet verified from the Sonoran region but likely to occur in limestone areas at higher elevations. Phloeopeccania major, a yet undescribed species from Chihuahuan Desert, occurs in limestone habitats outside the Sonoran Region, and is peculiar due to its indented apothecial discs and very small, convex, shortly stalked squamules. Various sources, including Index Fungorum, cite the year of publication of Phloeopeccania and P. pulvinulina as 1902. It was also published as part of composite work on the results of the Austrian South Yemen & Socotra expedition in 1907, which explains this year cited by some authorities.