Cryptodiscus gloeocapsa
Thallus membranous or filmy, ± shining, very thin when dry, pale fawn to green, becoming gelatinous when wet, effuse or vaguely delimited. Photobiont Gloeocystis-like, globose or elongate, in clusters.
Anamorph: conidiomata pycnidia, pyriform, immersed in the thallus. Conidia shortly cylindrical.
Teleomorph: ascomata apothecia, 200-500 µm diam., scattered and discrete or in small clusters, at first immersed and closed, becoming emergent and deeply concave, opening with a broad pore. Disc pale yellow-brown to orange-red, rarely dark brown. True exciple pale yellow-brown to pale brown or concolorous with the disc, 25-70 µm thick. Hymenium 50-60 µm high, yellow-brown in iodine and faint blue in K/I. Interascal tissue of straight ± unbranched paraphyses, not swollen at the apex, immersed within a gelatinous matrix. Asci 40-60 x 4-6 µm, cylindrical, short-stalked, fairly thin-walled, the apex thickened, rounded, K/I+ blue, without any clear apical structures, 8-spored. Ascospores arranged in a fascicle, 20-30 × 1.5-2 μm, narrowly cylindrical to cylindric-fusiform, often tapering at one end, 3- to 4-septate, not constricted at the septa, hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, without an epispore, gelatinous sheath or appendages.
Assessed by Woods & Coppins (2012) as of Least Concern, but considered to be Nationally Scarce due to the small number of records. It is probably overlooked.
Scattered throughout western and northern parts of Great Britain and Ireland. BLS map here.
Overgrowing moribund bryophytes, especially on recently disturbed soil, on acid dunes, shaded road-cuttings and banks, as well as mineralized acid soil associated with old mine-workings.