Cora accipiter

The thallus is somewhat epiphytic, forming a foliose carpet up to 20 cm across at the bases or lower stems of páramo shrubs, or over grasses and other herbaceous plants. It comprises 5–25 overlapping, fan- to wing-shaped lobes, each 2–3 cm wide and 1–3 cm long. Long, radial branching sutures frequently split, leaving the lobes laterally truncated and giving them a ragged "wing" outline. Fresh upper surfaces are light olive to olive-brown with a faint concentric colour zoning; the thin, rolled-in (involute) margins are pale and finely pilose. When dry, the surface becomes distinctly undulate-rugose and shows concentric bands of short, cobweb-like (arachnoid) tomentum. The lower surface lacks a cortex (it is ecorticate) and exposes a whitish-to-cream felty medulla.

In section the thallus is 400–500 micrometres (μm) thick. The upper cortex is 20–40 μm thick and viaduct-shaped, underlain by a 70–100 μm zone of spaced anticlinal hyphae; stout setae (200–400 μm long, 30–40 μm wide at the base) emerge through this layer. The algal layer is 100–200 μm thick, orange-brown above and bluish-green below. A 100–150 μm hydrophobic medulla completes the section; neither clamp connections nor papillate hyphae are present. The fertile surface forms pale yellow-brown, resupinate patches 0.5–2 mm long and 1–5 mm broad that may anastomose into diffuse, concentric lines. Its hymenium (60–80 μm) contains abundant palisade-like basidioles (20–30 × 5–7 μm) and scattered four-spored basidia (25–35 × 5–7 μm); basidiospores have not been observed. Thin-layer chromatography revealed no detectable secondary metabolites.^[2]

Cora accipiter was originally documented from the wet páramo ecosystems of the northern Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, at elevations of roughly 3,200–3,730 m. It grows epiphytically at the bases and lower stems of páramo shrubs—or immediately above the ground on grasses and other low herbs—where frequent mist, strong winds, and intense ultraviolet radiation prevail.^[2] It was later recorded in the El Ángel páramo of Ecuador at about 3950 m elevation.^[3]