Miltidea ceroplasta

Detailed description

Thallus pale greenish-grey, glaucous-green to pale greyish or brownish, ± areolate-cracked, or ± continuous, areolae plane or subconvex, matt or shining, ± translucent in parts, smooth or minutely white-papillate or tuberculate, with numerous minute, reddish, granular apothecial initials(?), in irregular patches 2-8(-10) cm diam. Apothecia scattered, single, rarely paired and then deformed through mutual pressure, sessile, 0.1-2.5 mm diam., plane to convex, disc orange-red to red-brown (K+ purple) or rust-red, smooth or minutely granular, epruinose, translucent when wet, margins thin, entire to ± crenulate or verrucose, persistent, or ± excluded at maturity, concolorous with disc or paler. Epithecium dense, granular, yellow-brown, opaque, K+ purple-magenta, 9-15 µm thick. Hymenium markedly inspersed with granules and oil droplets, colourless, 60-85 µm tall. Paraphyses simple, septate, 1-2 µm diam., clavate, brownish, granular at apices and there 3-5 µm diam. Asci clavate, 68-75 × 10-14 µm. Ascospores uniseriate or biseriate, ellipsoid, ends rounded, (11-)12-21(-25) × (5-)7-9(-11) µm.

Chemistry: Four unidentified pigments (K+ purple) related to parietin.