TYPE. [UNITED STATES] Not located; Original description (Tuckerman 1858) cites: “Hab. Base of the White Mountains, found by the late Mr. Oakes.”

Description. Lichenized fungus.

Thallus dimorphic. Primary thallus squamulose; squamules finely divided and abundant, yellowish (in exposed areas) to greenish to grayish (in shade); vegetative diaspores absent; photobiont Asterochloris erici alga. Podetia unbranched or slightly branched at tips, lacking cups, podetial surface corticate, continuous to areolate, smooth to verruculose. Ascomata biatorine apothecia atop of podetia, red, 0.3-3 mm diam.

Chemistry. K-, C-, KC+ gold, PD-; usnic, barbatic and didymic acids.

Substrate and Habitat. On wood, soil or bark of tree bases

Distribution. Eastern North America; in North Carolina throughout.

Literature

Brodo, I.M., S. Duran Sharnoff & S. Sharnoff. (2001) Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven & London. 795 pp.

Fink, B. (1935) The Lichen Flora of the United States. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.

Pino-Bodas, R. & S. Stenroos. (2021) Global Biodiversity Patterns of the Photobionts Associated with the Genus Cladonia (Lecanorales, Ascomycota). Microbial Ecology 82: 173–187.

Tuckerman, E. (1858) Supplement to an Enumeration of North American Lichenes. American Journal of Science and Arts 25: 422-430 (original description).