Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2002. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1.
Thallus: tightly adnate to adnate, appressed throughout or the margins and ends of the lobes somewhat reflexed, foliose, up to 8 cm diam., lobate lobes: somewhat paler near the periphery, short and rounded to somewhat elongate, discrete (but often crowded) to subimbricate, (0.5-) 1-2.5 (-3.5) mm broad, flat to weakly convex upper surface: olive-brown to yellowish or reddish brown, smooth to weakly wrinkled or pitted on the lobes, inward becoming rugose and fissured; dull throughout or slightly shiny on the lobe-ends lower surface: pale tan to pale brown, sometimes with a slightly pinkish tinge, smooth to weakly and irregularly wrinkled, dull; moderately to somewhat more densely rhizinate, the rhizines concolorous with the lower surface or blackening Apothecia: common, up to 3 mm diam., often crowded in the thallus center, sessile to short stipitate, almost flat when young, becoming concave or infolded; margin entire to irregularly incised and ± wavy asci: clavate, 8-spored ascospores: ellipsoid, 8.5-11 x 4.5-6 µm Pycnidia: common, immersed conidia: bifusiform, sometimes very indistinctly so, 5.5-6.5 x 1 µm Spot tests: cortex K-, C-, KC-, P-, HNO3+ dark green-blue; medulla K-, C-, KC-, P- Secondary metabolite: unknown fatty acid (TE-8). Substrate: rock World distribution: SW North America Sonoran distribution: Arizona, Baja California Sur in forested regions from 1,000 to 2,000 m. Notes: This is one of three fatty-acid producing species of Neofuscelia occurring in the study area. All three share a usually fertile thallus and a lack of positive spot tests in the medulla, and although some minor tendencies in morphological variation can be observed, positive determinations nevertheless require analysis by thin-layer chromatography, as discussed in the protologue (Esslinger 1977).