Acta Horti Götoburg. 19, 2: 34 (1952).

Synonyms: Index Fungorum

Protolog: Data lacking.

Type locality: USA, Utah, Wayne County, Ekker's Ranch, on dry red sandstone, 1929 m, 5.1951, Seville Flowers 367 (UPS - holotype; COLO - isotype).

Type locality coordinates: 39°54'32"N, 112°31'52"W.

Molecular barcode: Data lacking.

Thallus: crustose of verruciform areoles with a hypothallus of intricate hyaline thin-walled branching hyphae, 2-3 µm in diam., intertwined with crystals of top millimeter of substrate, becoming gelatinized, often visible between areoles as a whitening of substrate or as irregular and rugulose ecorticate surface. Verruciform areoles arising individually from the hypothallus, brown, round to deformed, becoming contiguous or dispersed, dividing vegetatively, remaining broadly attached to the hypothallus; photobiont present only around base or walls of verrucae and apothecia, mostly 0.5 mm (0.5-1.0 mm) in diam. Surface of vurrucae usually epruinose, light creamy yellow-brown to dark brown, dull, without sterile pits, with or without striations or fissures that are usuylla radial around apothecia becoming deep fissures as verruca divide. Cortex 40-80 µm thick, consisting of a thin syncortex (Knudsen 2007) or necral layer in upper part, uneven or not, with or without crystals, 10 µm thick or less, with eucortex beneath, paraplectenchymatous, cells mostly 3.5-4 µm, upper layer pigmented, light to darker brown, with hyaline lower layer, (30-)50-70 µm thick. Algal layer varies in thickness forming around the sides of the apothecium, continuous or interrupted beneath the apothecium. Medulla indistinct from hypothallus, continuous with hyphae of hypothallus, inspersed with crystals, white and cloudy in water or KOH. Apothecia usually one or two per verruca or per unit of deformed verruca in process of vegetative division, immersed, usually punctiform. Disc brown or black, round to irregular, epruinose or pruinose, plane, 0.2-0.6 mm in diam., sometimes with umbo or other structures obscuring surface of disc and apparently formed by remnants of sterile plectenchyma partially dissolved during the formation of fertile apothecium. The excipulum constists of a parathecium, usually 40-60 µm thick, distinctly but irregularly paraplectenchymatous around disc and same color as thallus, merging and indistinguishable from cortex and not forming a parathecial crown, becoming prosoplectenchymatous at a depth of about 30-50 µm below upper surface, hyphae hyaline, mostly 1 µm wide, cells 2-4 µm long, narrowing into a hypothecium 10 µm thick. Hymenium hyaline, 110-150 µm high, epihymenium conglutinate, light brown, about 20 µm thick, paraphyses mostly 1.5-2.0 µm wide at mid-level, with unexpanded or barely expanded apices, blue turning red in I, subhymenium 50-90 µm deep, blue in I. Asci of 100-200 ascospores, 90-100 x 20-30 µm. Ascospores simple, hyaline, ellipsoid, various, from narrow to broadly ellipsoid, 3-5 x 2-3 µm. Conidiomata: pycnidial, with hyaline walls, immersed in minute brown verrucae less than .3 mm in diam., conidia ellipsoid, simple, and hyaline, 1-2 x 1-2 µm (Knudsen 2008: 82).

Photobiont: Chlorococcoid green alga. 7-12 µm diam. (Knudsen 2008: 83).

Chemistry: Gyrophoric acid. Cortex KC+ red (Knudsen 2008: 83).

Ecology: On sandstone and soil.

Molecular data: Genbank

Distribution: Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah. Endemic in western North America. Database

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