TYPE. UNITED STATES. Louisiana, New Orleans, 1826, J. Müller s.n. (G, holotype and 2 isotypes). “Habitat prope Nourvelle Orleans Louisianiae, ad truncus arborum frequentur ut videtur, ubi leg. cl. Lafayette 1826 (hb. Bory de Saint-Vincent nunc hb. Bornetian).” (Müller 1877).
Life form. Lichenized fungus.
Description. Thallus fruticose, erect, shrubby, yellow-green, branches 4-6 cm. long; branches 0.5-1 mm wide, flat, abundantly branching. Surface smooth with short, white linear pseudocyphellae. Vegetative diaspores absent. Medulla white; photobiont chlorococcoid alga. Ascomata lecanorine apothecia, abundant, subterminal, 1-2 mm diam.; disk strongly concave, waxy yellow-brown, often weakly pruinose. Epihymenium yellowish brown; hymenium hyaline, clear; hypothecium hyaline. Asci 8-spored; ascospores hyaline, 2-celled, narrowly, 15-25 x 3-5 μm.
Substrate and habitat. Corticolous on hardwood trees in humid and swamp forests.
Distribution. Gulf and Atlantic coasts of southeastern North America north to the Delmarva peninsula; in North Carolina found in the Coastal Plain and lower Piedmont ecoregions.
Literature
Lendemer, J.C. & N. Noell. (2018) Delmarva Lichens: An illustrated manual. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Society28: 1-386.
Müller, J. (1877) Lichenologische Beiträge. VI. Flora (Regensburg) 60(30): 471-479. (original description).