Thallus crustose, granular-areolate, blackish. Photobiont Gleocapsa cyanobacteria, reddish, K+ violet; cells 10.5-15 µm encase in gel. Ascomata lecanorine apothecia, partly immersed, 1 or more per areole, 0.15-0.3 mm diam.; disk concave to flattish; margin thin, black. Epithecium yellowish; hymenium hyaline, I+ blue to wine-red; paraphyses simple; hypothecium hyaline, I+ blue. Asci +/- cylindrical, 8-spored, apex I+ blue; ascospores hyaline, 1-2-celled, subglobose (6.5 x 5.5 µm) to ellipsoid (9-10.5 x 5-6.5 µm).
Substrate and Habitat. On soil and rock.
Distribution. Europe and North America; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.
Literature
Degelius, G.N. (1941) Contributions to the Lichen flora of North America II. The lichen flora of the Great Smoky Mountains. Arkiv för Botanik30A, Nr. 3: 1-80.
Fink, B. (1935) The Lichen Flora of the United States. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 426 pp.
Nylander, W. (1867) Addenda nova ad Lichenographiam europaeam. Contin. VI. Flora (Regensburg). 50: 369-374 (original description).