Amandinea punctata
Common name
Black button lichen
Synonyms
Verrucaria punctata Hoffm., Dtsch., Buellia punctata (Hoffm.) A.Massal.
Family
Caliciaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit (it also occurs on coastal rocks); the warty, olive-grey to silver-grey thallus; small, frequent, scattered, plane to convex, matt, black apothecia (often in concentric circles when well-developed); and olive-brown to dark-brown, ascospores (12–)17–20.5(–22) × 7–8.5(–10) μm, with a finely warted wall.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Whangarei, Great Barrier Island) to Wellington (Lower Hutt, Titahi Bay). South Island: Marlborough (North East of Kaikoura), Canterbury (Christchurch, Okains Bay) to Southland (Invercargill).
Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Brazil, Australia, South Georgia, South Sandwich Island, South Orkney Island, Antarctic Peninsula and continental Antarctica.
Habitat
On trees and shrubs – common on Metrosideros excelsa in polluted sites (especially alongside motorways) in the north; elsewhere on introduced trees (*Fraxinus, *Platanus etc.) in towns and cities where it can withstand moderate to high levels of atmospheric pollution; also on coastal rocks.
Detailed description
Thallus thin and continuous, often becoming cracked or restricted to a few minute lumps and warts, often lacking, pale silvery grey to dark grey or olivaceous, determinate or partly indeterminate, rarely with a delimiting black, marginal prothallus, corticolous or lignicolous. Apothecia small, 0.05-0.25 mm diam., black or brown-black, matt, marginate and sessile becoming convex and immarginate. Epithecium dark brown. Hypothecium pale to dark brown. Ascospores ellipsoid 17-20.5(-22.1) × 7-8.3 µm.
Similar taxa
Similar to Bacidia wellingtonii but they are distinguished by the spores being different in shape.
Could also be confused with Lecidella elaeochroma, which can grow in similar habitats.
Substrate
Corticolous
Etymology
punctata: From the Latin punctatus ‘dotted’, referring to a patten of small round dots
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (3 August 2022). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 1985: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens. Wellington: PD Hasselberg, Government Printer. 662 pp.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.