Peltigera praetextata

On moss, both on soil and on rocks or wood, with lobes up to 5 cm, forming more or less circular structures up to 25 cm or more across, dark bluish green when fresh, with rhizines on the underside that anchor it to the substrate, and scattered saddle-shaped apothecia at the lobe margins, orange-red to dark reddish brown, housing the asci.

Asci clavate, eight-spored, bitunicate, 70 to 100 µm long, 12 to 18 µm wide, with a fasciculate spore arrangement forming bundles arranged parallel to each other, occupying two-thirds of the total ascus length, with an amyloid apical apparatus turning blue in IKI after KOH pre-treatment.

Paraphyses filiform, simple, unbranched, septate, 1.5 to 2.5 µm wide, with apical thickenings up to 4 to 6 µm, with a brown amorphous apical mass, extending only very slightly above the asci.

Ascospores cylindrical, very elongated, needle-shaped (acicular), smooth, hyaline, thin-walled, 35 to 55 µm long, 4 to 6 µm wide, with three to five transverse septa, containing abundant oil droplets of varying sizes inside, and inamyloid in Melzer's reagent.