Galapagos Species Database

Thallus white to a bit ochraceous, continuous, to 5 cm diam.; cortex absent; medulla white, cretaceous, to 1 mm thick, with crystals; photobiont Trentepohlia; prothallus indistinct. Ascomata numerous, sessile, rounded to usually elongate, often forked, ca. 0.1–0.5 3 0.3–1.0 mm; disc black, sometimes white pruinose; thalline margin ca. 0.2 mm wide of the same color and structure as the thallus; excipulum dark brown, KOH-, to 10 mm wide; epithecium red-brown, KOH-; hypothecium dark brown to black, often extending downwards, upper layer (subhymenium) hyaline to orange-brown, 40–100 mm tall; hymenium ca. 50 mm tall, hyaline; paraphysoids ca. 1 mm wide, anastomosing; asci clavate-cylindrical, Grumolosa-type, 8-spored, 70–90 3 15–20 mm; ascospores (3–)4–6-septate, hyaline, clavate, straight, 17–25 3 (3–)5–6 mm, surrounded by a 1–2 mm thick perispore. Conidiomata not observed. Chemistry: Thallus C+ red (at least around apothecia or apothecium margins), KOH-, PD-, UV+ whitish. Erythrin, gyrophoric acid and methyl gyrophorate detected with TLC.