Bulbothrix hypocraea (Vain.) Hale

Thallus sublinearly to subirregularly laciniate to sublaciniate, light dusky gray in the herbarium, in fragments up to 5.2 cm diam., coriaceous to subcoriaceous, corticolous or rarely saxicolous; upper cortex 15.0−25.0 µm thick, algal layer 25.0−42.5 µm thick, medulla 75.0−125.0 µm thick, lower cortex 12.5−20.0 µm thick. Laciniae anisotomicaly dichotomously to irregularly branched, (0.5−) 0.9–2.6 (−3.0) mm wide, contiguous to slightly imbricate, rarely crowded at the center, ±adnate and loosely adpressed, with plane to slightly involute or revolute, truncate, subtruncate or subrounded apices; margins plane to subplane, smooth to sinuous and subcrenate or subirregular, entire to slightly incised, not lacinulate; axils oval to irregular. Upper cortex mostly continuous, occasionally with some irregular cracks on older parts, smooth to subrugose; laminal ciliary bulbs absent. Adventitious marginal lacinulae absent, even on old parts. Maculae usually distinct, puntiform to efigurate, laminal on the thallus or on the amphithecia of the apothecia. Cilia black or rarely brown, without or with simple apices, often bent downwards, 0.05–0.65 × 0.03–0.05 mm, with semi-immerse to emerse, bulbate bases (0.05-) 0.10–0.30 mm wide (these partially enlarged or occasionally absent), frequent throughout the margins, solitary or in small groups in the crenae and axils spaced 0.05−0.20 mm from each other to occasionally contiguous, becoming absent or scarce at the apices of the laciniae and adjacent parts, usually absent or scarce in the apices of the laciniae and adjacent parts. Soredia, Isidia and Pustulae absent. Medulla white. Lower surface pale brown to ivory, opaque to slightly shiny, smooth, moderately rhizinate, sometimes up to the margins. Marginal zone indistinctly delimited from the center to slightly attenuate, 0.5–2.0 mm wide, pale brown to ivory, opaque to slightly shiny, smooth, weakly papillate, often rhizinate. Rhizinae ivory or light to dark brown, occasionally blackish, whitish or with white apices, simple or sometimes irregularly branched, partially with blackish bulbate bases or displaced bulbs, 0.10–0.80 (–1.10) × 0.05–0.10 mm, frequent, sometimes agglutinated, evenly distributed. Apothecia subconcave to subplane, becoming folded when old, sessile to adnate to substipiate, 0.3–8.2 mm diam., laminal to submarginal, ecoronate; margin subcrenate; amphithecia smooth occasionally fissured, without ornamentations. Disc pale brown to reddish brown, epruinose, imperforate; epithecium 7.5–17.5 µm high; hymenium 32.5−70.0 µm high; subhymenium 10.0−37.5 µm high. Ascospores ellipsoid to oval or subrounded, 7.0–14.0 × (5.0–) 6.0–8.0 mm; epispore ca. 1.0 mm. Pycnidia laminal, frequent mainly at the distal parts of the laciniae, immersed, with black ostioles. Conidia baciliform to weakly bifusiform (4.0−) 5.0−9.0 × 0.75 µm. TLC/HPLC: cortical atranorin and chloroatranorin, medullary salazinic and consalazinic acids (see also Hale 1976).

Africa (Zahlbruckner 1926): Angola (Vainio 1901, Hale 1976a), South Africa (Hale 1976a), Kenya, Tanzania (Sambo 1938, Swinscow and Krog 1988), Uganda (Hale 1976a, Swinscow and Krog 1988), Rwanda (Killmann and Fischer 2005, Bock et al. 2007), Rhodesia (nowadays Zimbabwe), Zaire, and Zambia (Hale 1976a). South America: Venezuela (López-Figueiras 1986, Marcano et al. 1996,) Brazil – States of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso (Hale 1976a), Paraná (Eliasaro and Adler 1997, Eliasaro 2001), São Paulo (Hale 1976a, Marcelli 1993) and Tocantins (Eliasaro and Adler 1997).