TYPE. UNITED STATES. Maryland, Worcester County, Pocomoke State Forest, Hickory Point Swamp, E of access road 0.5 miles N of jct with Hickory Point Rd., 0-3 m elev., swamp forest of mixed conifers and hardwoods, on Acer, 15.XI.2012, J.C. Lendemer et al. 34000 (NY, holotype).
Life form. Lichenized fungus
Description. Thallus crustose, continuous to granular, greenish gray to brownish green; prothallus lacking or present between granules, whitish. Photobiont chlorococcoid alga; cells ~ 15 μm diam. Ascomata biatorine apothecia, 0.6-1.0 mm diam., plane to ± convex; disk pale to dark brown-orange, epruinose; margin concolorous with disk, becoming excluded. Exciple two-parted: inner lense-shaped, orange-brown, ~100-150 μm thick; outer cup-shaped, light orange inside, hyaline layer outside, ~80-100 μm thick; rim often green adjacent to epihymenium. Hypothecium ~60 μm thick , brown orange; hymenium ~100 μm high, hyaline, not inspersed; epithecium hyaline to brown; paraphyses simple or apically branched. Asci clavate, 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, 5-10-celled, needle-shaped, 40-75 x 2-4 μm. Conidiomata pycnidia, blackish, globose, 0.15-0.2 mm diam., upper wall dark brown; conidia hyaline, filiform, curved, 20–25 3 0.8 μm.
Chemistry. Atronorin in thallus; apothecial pigments intensifying in K.
Substrate and habitat. Corticolous in humid forests.
Distribution. Southeastern North America; in North Carolina found throughout.
Literature
Lendemer, J.C., R.C. Harris & D. Ladd (2016) The faces of Bacidia schweinitzii: molecular and morphological data reveal three new species including a widespread sorediate morph. The Bryologist119(2): 143-171.
Lendemer, J.C. & N. Noell. (2018) Delmarva Lichens: An illustrated manual. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Society28: 1-386.