Thallus: crustose, continuous to slightly rugose; surface: cream-colored, white or pale gray or grayish green, dull; Apothecia: raised from the thallus, lirellate; lirellae: oblong, ±flexuous and branched, 1-3 x 0.2-0.4 mm; disc: narrow to wide and open, dark gray to brown with whitish pruina; margin: well developed, covering the lateral part of the ascocarps; excipular lips: black, entire, sometimes narrow; exciple: poorly developed and not carbonized at the base, carbonized laterally, with entire excipular lips whose basal part is sometimes less developed and less carbonized; epihymenium: brown, 5-10 µm thick; hymenium: not inspersed, 90-100 µm tall; paraphyses: 1.5-2 µm thick, dense, tips distinctly brown or yellowish brown; subhymenium: hyaline, 10-20 µm thick; asci: clavate, 80-90 x 15-20 µm, 8-spored; ascospores: hyaline, transversely 7-10-septate, somes spores terminally with one transverse septum, 25-45 x 7-9 µm, I+ blue-violet; Pycnidia: immersed; conidia: bacilliform, 2-5 x 1 µm (Purvis et al. 1992); Spot tests: cortex and medulla K-, C-, KC-, P-; Secondary metabolites: none detected.; Substrate and ecology: on smooth bark of deciduous trees, in humid, submontane or montane forests; World distribution: depending on the species concept (see note) world-wide (including tropical regions) or restricted to temperate regions; Sonoran distribution: Sierra Madre Occidental region of Chihuahua.; Notes: The species concept for Graphis scripta is still not resolved and, depending on the view of an author, includes or excludes the tropical specimens. Staiger (2002) identified the tropical samples as Graphis furcata Fée and restricted Graphis scripta to collections from holarctic or southern temperate regions. We follow that concept here, as additional minor morphological differences (e.g. ±open discs in G. scripta versus closed, slit-like discs in G. furcata) can be observed. However, more morphological and molecular data are necessary to assess the validity of this point of view. 

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Lichen / parasite
perithecium of Stigmidium microspilum parasitises thallus of Graphis scripta

Lichen / pathogen
colony of Taeniolella dematiaceous anamorph of Taeniolella punctata infects and damages degenerate colony of Graphis scripta

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: This common lichen is widespread in the eastern U.S. and Canada, where it typically grows in partially shaded forests on trees.

Comments: Currently Stable. See Vitt, Marsh & Bovey. 1988. Mosses, Lichens & Ferns of NW North America. But the Genus needs revision. The circumscription of this species will probably be more limited and include others yet undescribed or little known.