Halegrapha kenyana

Halegrapha kenyana forms a thin, continuous thallus on bark, usually 1–3 cm across and about 50–80 μm thick. The surface is smooth to uneven and yellowish white, without a distinct prothallus. In cross-section, the thallus has a cartilaginous upper cortex, an irregular photobiont layer, and conspicuous clusters of crystals.^[2]

The fruiting bodies are lirellae (elongate, slit-like apothecia) that are dense, flexuose, and irregularly branched. They are immersed to erumpent, with the base set well below the thallus surface and a white lateral thalline margin. The disc is concealed and the black labia become striate with age. Microscopically, the excipulum is bowl-shaped and completely carbonized (blackened), while the hymenium is colourless and clear; the asci contain eight brown ascospores, usually 3–5-septate, measuring about 13–18 × 5–7 μm. Thin-layer chromatography detected stictic acid as a major lichen product with constictic acid as a minor component (with K+ persistently yellow in microscope cross-sections).^[2]

Halegrapha kenyana is a corticolous (bark-dwelling) lichen known from coastal Kenya, where it was collected in the Shimba Hills (Kwale District) at 350 m elevation. In the original description, the species was reported only from the type collection, and no further localities or habitat details were provided beyond its occurrence on bark at the type locality.^[2]