TYPE. “Habitat in Svecia ad truncus abietinos subputridos. Fries.” (Acharius 1816).
Description. Lichenized fungus.
Thallus crustose, immersed, more rarely poorly developed on surface and then finely granular-verrucose, ecorticate. Photobiont Dictyochloropsis or Trebouxia. Ascomata apothecia, stalked, 0.5-1.5 mm tall, 9-23 times higher than width of the stalk; stalk 0.05-0.1 mm diam., shiny black, epruinose, often branched so that one stalk carries 2-5 heads (capitulae); capitulum ± globose; true exciple poorly developed, without pruina, but lower side sometimes appearing pruinose from pale hyphae projecting from the surface, extending downward forming the stalk. Asci of variable shape, produced in chains, with 1- to 2-seriately arranged ascospores, soon dissolving, forming a dry mass of spores (maezedium). Ascospores brownish, globose, simple, 3.5-4.5 µm diam., smooth or with irregular fissures.
Substrate and Habitat. On bark and wood in forests.
Distribution. Cosmopolitan; in North Carolina found throughout.
Acharius, E. (1816) Afhandling om de cryptogamiske vexter, som komma under namn af Calicioidea. Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar, for ar 1816: 260-291 (original description as Calicium brunneolum).
Giavarini, G., O.W. Purvis & P.W. James (2009). Chaenotheca (Th. Fr.) Th. Fr. (1860). Pp. 297-303 in Smith, C.W., A. Aptroot, B.J. Coppins, A. Fletcher, O.L. Gilbert, P.W. James & P.A. Wolseley (eds.). The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. The British Lichen Society, London.