Tricharia variratae
Tricharia variratae is a foliicolous, crustose lichen in the family Gomphillaceae, described as a new species in 2005. The type was collected in Papua New Guinea, Varirata National Park at 800 m elevation, from leaves in March 1987. The species appears closely related to Tricharia elegans and allied taxa, and it is very similar to Tricharia pallida, but is distinguished from that species by its more or less s.
The thallus forms a greyish-green crust 5–20 mm across that is smooth, continuous, and without crystals, and it bears abundant black 0.7–1.0 mm long, with the tips often paler. The apothecia are not abundant. They are, strongly constricted at the base with a short, thick stipe, and are regularly rounded, with a flat, pale yellowish-brown, translucent and a thin margin that is not to only slightly prominent and somewhat darker. Microscopically, the is hyaline and well developed, the is thin and hyaline, and the hymenium is hyaline. The paraphyses are branched and interconnected, the asci are, and each ascus has 6–8 ellipsoid, somewhat ascospores with 3–5 × 0–1 septa. are abundant and, with the uppermost part expanded into a disc-like, to shield 0.15–0.2 mm across when moist. Unlike related species with a crown of apical hooks on the hyphophores and/or thallus setae, T. variratae has this disc-like expansion, and were not observed.