Waynea californica

The lichen forms an irregular, squamulose (scale-like) thallus made up of small patches up to about 0.5 cm across, which can merge to form larger colonies. Each patch consists of a few convex, upward-curving squamules less than 0.5 mm wide. The upper surface is olive-green to brown-green, sometimes glossy, and develops pale spots that become knob-like outgrowths. These eventually open into cup-shaped soralia—structures that produce powdery clusters of reproductive cells (soredia) for asexual dispersal. The lichen lacks a distinct lower cortex, and its photobiont partner is a green alga of the Myrmecia type. Apothecia (sexual fruiting bodies) are rare, small (up to 0.5 mm across), and borne on short stalks. They are bluish gray with a pale, smooth (biatorine) margin. Inside, the spore-bearing layer (hymenium) is up to 80 μm tall. The asci (spore sacs) are cylindrical to club-shaped, each producing eight spores and possessing an amyloid (starch-reactive) apical dome. The ascospores are colorless, elongated with three internal cross-walls (3-septate), and measure 13–19 × 3–4 μm. No pycnidia have been observed, and chemical analysis by thin-layer chromatography has detected no lichen substances.

Waynea californica is known only from a few sites in California, including the Big Sur region and the Santa Lucia Mountains. It grows on the trunks of solitary trees, especially oaks, in relatively open habitats along roadsides, occurring on both exposed and shaded trunk surfaces. The type collection was found alongside other lichens such as species of Physcia and Phaeophyscia. The species' combination of cup-shaped soralia and small, stalked apothecia makes it distinctive, although the apothecia can be difficult to see because they are pale and often mixed with the soralia. In Washington, Waynea californica has been rarely reported and is proposed for monitoring as an oak-obligate indicator species in Garry oak woodlands.

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