TYPE. “Habitat ad ligna & truncus arborum vetustos.” (Acharius 1816; H H-ACH 0495A, lectotype selected in Tibell 1994)
Description. Lichenized fungus.
Thallus crustose, thin, granular to verrucose, greenish to yellowish gray with a bluish tinge. Photobiont trebouxioid alga. Ascomata stalked capitulate maezedia, epruinose or with a whitish pruina on the lower side of capitulum. Stalk black to dark reddish brown, 0.5-1.3 mm tall. Capitulum narrowly obconical to lenticular, 0.2-0.55 mm diam.; mazaedium well developed, black; hypothecium blackish brown, with a convex upper surface. Asci narrowly clavate to cylindrical, dissolving early, with partly 2-seriate ascospores. Ascospores first simple, then (when released from asci) 1-septate, dark brown, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, 9-12 x 4-7 µm, with a thick, minutely verrucose to areolate wall.
Chemistry. Thallus K-, C-, KC-, P-; maezedial stalk and exciple I+ deep blue; no lichen substances or with placodiolic and sometimes 4-O-methyhypoprotocetraric acids.
Substrate and Habitat. Lignicolous on decorticated conifer stumps and and trunks, as well as corticolous.
Distribution. Cosmopolitan, primarily cool-temperate to boreal-montane; in North Carolina found in the Blue Ridge ecoregion.
Literature
Acharius, E. (1816) Afhandling om de cryptogamiske Vexter, som komma under namn av Calicioidea, Andra Stycket. Acta Reg. Acad. Scient. Holm. 1816: 260-291 (original description).
Giavarini, V.J. & O.W. Purvis. (2009) Calicium Pers. (1794). Pp. 241-245 in Smith, C.W., A. Aptroot, B.J. Coppins, A. Fletcher, O.L. Gilbert, P.W. James & P.A. Wolseley (eds.). 2009. The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. The British Lichen Society, London.
Nimis P.L. (2022) ITALIC - The Information System on Italian Lichens. Version 7.0. University of Trieste, Dept. of Biology, (https://dryades.units.it/italic), accessed on 2022-09-15.
Tibell, L. (1987) Typification of names of infrageneric taxa described by Acharius and placed by him in Caliciales. Annales Botanici Fennici24: 257-280.