Neobrownliella

The thallus of Neobrownliella forms a crust that begins as an unbroken film but often fractures into discrete areoles; at the margins these can lift slightly so the rim looks faintly lobed. Colours range from muted pink and brown-pink to bright orange or reddish-orange, a palette produced by anthraquinone pigments of the parietin group. A thin outer cortex is built from densely interwoven upright hyphae (a palisade paraplectenchyma) that shields the algal layer beneath. Both the thallus and the fruit bodies turn a deep purple when a drop of potassium hydroxide solution is applied, a quick field test that confirms the presence of parietin and related lichen products; some species also contain gyrophoric, ovoic or lecanoric acids together with traces of xanthorin and erythroglaucin.^[2]

Sexual structures are minute, pale-orange apothecia set flush with or slightly sunken in the crust. They are biatorine, lacking the thick algal rim seen in many teloschistoid relatives, and their internal ring of fungal tissue (the true exciple) is reduced to a delicate membrane. Inside each club-shaped ascus up to eight ascospores are produced, although two to six usually mature fully; the spores are relatively small and divided into two unequal chambers by a central wall (they are polarilocular). Asexual reproduction occurs in microscopic flask-shaped pycnidia embedded in the thallus, which release slender, rod-shaped conidia.^[2]

As of July 2025^[update], Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accept five species of Neobrownliella:^[1]

• Neobrownliella brownlieae (S.Y.Kondr., Elix & Kärnefelt) S.Y.Kondr., Elix, Kärnefelt & A.Thell (2015)^[2] – Australia
• Neobrownliella cinnabarina (Ach.) S.Y.Kondr., Upreti & A.Thell (2020)^[4]
• Neobrownliella holochracea (Nyl.) S.Y.Kondr., Upreti & A.Thell (2020)^[4]
• Neobrownliella montisfracti (S.Y.Kondr. & Kärnefelt) S.Y. Kondr., Elix, Kärnefelt & A. Thell (2015)^[2] – Australia
• Neobrownliella salyangensis S.Y.Kondr. & Hur (2020)^[3] – South Korea