Cladonia glebosa
Family
Cladoniaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by tallish, mainly simple podetia topped with conspicuous convex brown apothecia, podetia patchily sorediate, or squamulose, occasionally branched and with distinctive eroding-sorediate patches under the apothecia – podetia tall and thin 2–5–8 cm tall. It is generally recognised by the abundant, crowded bundles of brownish fungal tissue along the cup margins.
Distribution
North Island: Auckland (Western Springs), Gisborne (Parekiri Ridge Urewera), Wellington (National Park, Otaki River Tararua Ranges) South Island: Nelson (Lake Rotoiti), Westland (Runanga, Greymouth, Kumara, Lake Moana), Canterbury (Huxley Range, Lake Ohau), Otago (Haast Pass, Hunter Valley Lake Hawea, Maungatua, Taieri Mouth), Southland (Doubtful Sound, Cascade Cove Dusky Sound, Cascade Creek, Lake Hauroko, Forest Hill, Awarua Bay, Greenhills). Chatham Islands. Campbell Island: (Tucker Cove).
Known also from Western Australia and in Eastern Australia from Queensland to Victoria.
Habitat
On peat.
Detailed description
Basal squamules persistent or soon disappearing, 1–5 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, sorediate or lobulate along margins, involute, entire to incised. Podetia narrowly cup-forming, 1–2 mm wide and to 5.5 cm tall, corticate towards base, sorediate above, soredia granular, enlarging and developing into squamules, sometimes squamules slough off exposing white to brownish hyphae, cups narrow barely exceeding width of supporting podetium, corticate or sorediate inside, margins with abundant, crowded, glebose, pale-brown bundles of meristematic tissue, bundles enlarging outwards and resembling pouting lips, sometimes producing pycnidia, sometimes producing proliferations that are elongate, subulate to acicular or with several tiers of proliferations that are terete to dramatically flattened, sorediate or corticate. Apothecia brown, solitary or in clusters on cup margins or on tips of proliferations.
Chemistry: Medulla K−, Pd+ orange→red; containing fumarprotocetraric acid.
Similar taxa
It is characterized by glebose meristem formations around the narrow, cup-like apex. This feature distinguishes it from C. darwinii, which is generally subulate. The presence of multiple meristem bundles at the podetial apex generally precludes the formation of a single large, inflated proliferation, which is characteristic for C. nudicaulis, to which this species can also be compared. Instead, several narrow proliferations may form around the cups of C. glebosa. Certain specimens of this species may be indistinguishable from C. nudicaulis, but the podetia and proliferations of C. glebosa are generally narrower. Both species contain fumarprotocetraric acid.
Substrate
Terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (18 September 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (2007) & Hammer (2003)
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
Hammer S. 2001: Additions to the lichen family Cladoniaceae in Australia. The Bryologist 104(4): 560-575.
Hammer S. 2003: Notes on Cladoniaceae in New Zealand. Bryologist 106(3): 410-430.