TYPE. GUINEA. “Habitat ad corticem Codarii acutifolii Afz. (Dialii Guineensi Willd.) aliarumque arborum in Guinea” (Acharius 1814), E. Acharius s.n. (H-ACH 887, holotype).
Description.Life form: lichenized fungus.
[Largely translated and modified from Staiger (2002)] Thallus crustose, ochre, olive or brownish, mostly smooth or somewhat gristly with a waxy surface, but also creamy-whitish, dull, slightly unevenly warty or somewhat "flaky", ~50-150 µm thick in section; vegetative diaspores absent. Photobiont trentepohlioid alga. Ascomata lirellae, immersed, crowded-clustered in pseudostromata; individual lirellae ovoid to lobed to elongate, simple to branched, 1-10 x 1 mm; surface between lirellae whitish to brownish-gray, granular; disk brownish. Pseudostroma is composed largely of carbonized exciplular tissue, with embedded crystals in edges and upper surface. Hymenium hyaline, not inspersed, 70-100 µm high; epihymenium brown, about 5 µm high. Paraphyses 2-3 µm thick, with apical side branches, tips pigmented brown. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, transversely septate, 8-13-celled, 28-59 (-60) × 7-10 µm, perispore present, up to 5 µm thick.
Chemistry. No substances detected by TLC; hymenium I+ faint violet or grey-blue; spores I+ blue-violet.
Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous on hardwood trees.
Distribution. Pantropical, north to eastern North America; in North Carolina found in throughout.