TYPE. “Hab. Bark of pines in Sussex, Virginia.” (Tuckerman 1858)

Description. Lichenized fungus.

Thallus crustose, granular or coralloid-isidiate, yellowish or greenish gray; hypothallus white; prothallus black. Ascomata lecideine apothecia, sessile, 0.3-0.4 mm diam.; disk red, plane to convex, orange-pruinose; margin black, prominent, thin to disappearing. Exciple carbonized, interior paler; epithecium orange, dissolving in K; hymenium hyaline, not inspersed, 60-70 µm; hypothecium brown. Asci 8-spored. Ascospores brown, 2-celled, ellipsoid, walls thin, coarsely structured, 9-15 x 4-7 µm. Pycnidia not reported.

Chemistry. Thallus UV-, K-; barbatic and obtusatic acids. Apothecia UV+ red.

Substrate and Habitat. Corticolous.

Distribution. Primarily eastern North America with additional records from Asia (Japan), Africa (Kenya) and the Indian Ocean (Reunion Island); in North Carolina found in the Coastal Plain and Blue Ridge ecoregions.

Literature

Fink, B. (1935) The Lichen Flora of the United States. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 426 pp.

Kashiwadani, H., K. Kobayaashi & K.H. Moon. (2011) Checklist of lichens of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Bull. Shiga Soc. Nat. 9: 1-22.

Marbach, B. (2000) Corticole und lignicole Arten der Flechtengattung Buellia sensu lato in den Subtropen und Tropen. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 74: 1-384 (description as Gassicurtia elizae).

Tuckerman, E. (1858) Supplement to an enumeration of North American lichens; Part first, containing brief diagnoses of new species. American Journal of Science and Arts 25: 422-430 (original description as Lecidea elizae).

van den Boom, P.P.G., M. Brand, D. Ertz, K. Kalb, N. Magain, D. Masson, U. Schiefelbein, H.J.M. Sipman & E. Sérusiaux. (2011) Discovering the lichen diversity of a remote tropical island: working list of species collected on Reunion (Mascarene archipelago, Indian Ocean). Herzogia 24: 325–349.