TYPE. UNITED STATES. VERMONT, Windham County, Battleboro, on granite. C.C. Frost s.n. (FH, lectotype designated by Bungartz & Nash 2004; isolectotypes in ASU, MIN and MICH).
Description. Lichenized fungus.
Thallus crustose, granular areolate to verrucose, thin to +/- thick; dull sordid gray; hypothallus faint or absent. Photobiont chlorococcoid alga. Ascomata lecideine apothecia, emergent, 0.3-0.5 mm diam.; disk black, flat, without thalline veil; margin black, thick to disappearing. Exciple aethalea-type cinereorufa green (HNO3+ violet) in outer exciple only; epithecium brown, composed of thickened and pigmented paraphysal tips; hymenium hyaline, not inspersed; hypothecium dark brown. Asci clavate, 8-spored. Ascospores brown, 2-celled, ellipsoid, walls thin; Beltraminia-type (i.e., no septum thickening), 10-20 x 6-8 µm. Pycnidia not reported.
Chemistry. Thallus with atronorin. Medulla I-; +/- norstictic and stictic acid.
Substrate and Habitat. Saxicolous on granitic rock.
Distribution. Eastern North America; in North Carolina represented by one historical record in the Piedmont (Anson County, 2.VIII.1936, A.W.C.T. Herre 12968, F C0099028F).
Literature
Bungartz, F. & T.H. Nash, III. (2004) The Buellia aethalea-group in the Greater Sonoran Desert Region with reference to similar species in North America. The Bryologist107(4): 441-458.
Fink, B. (1935) The Lichen Flora of the United States. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 426 pp.
Tuckerman, E. (1858) Supplement to an enumeration of North American lichens; Part first, containing brief diagnoses of new species. American Journal of Science and Arts25: 422-430 (original description as Lecidea lepidastra).