Degelia gayana
Synonyms
Parmelia gayana
Family
Pannariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by its whitish grey lobes with transverse, concentric ridges and without isidia; numerous apothecia without any secondary thalline margin.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (near Whangarei, Rakitu Island), Auckland (Waitakere Ranges, Rangitoto Island), South Auckland (Red Mercury Island, Kaueranga Gorge near Thames, Coromandel Peninsula, Mangaotaki Valley Pio Pio, Waiotapu Valley), Hawke’s Bay (Kuripapango), Taranaki (Mt Taranaki), Wellington (Kaimanawa Ranges, Desert Road, Tararua Ranges). South Island: Nelson (Anatoki River, Lake Rotoroa, St Arnaud, Maruia River, Stockton Plateau), Westland (Lake Kaniere, Kumara, Greymouth, McArthur Flats Arawata River), Canterbury (Lewis Pass, Arthur’s Pass, Sebastopol, Waihi Gorge), Otago (Maitland Valley Lake Ohau, Dan’s Paddock near Paradise, Trotter’s Gorge, Leith Valley Dunedin, Mt Cargill, Kaka Point) Southland (Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound). Stewart Island: (Port Pegasus). Chatham Islands: (Owenga). Auckland Islands: (Erebus Cove).
Known also from E Australia, Tasmania, southern South America and Tristan da Cuñha.
Habitat
Widely distributed in humid habitats in moderate to deep shade on twigs or small branches of mainly successional shrubs (Coprosma, Kunzea, Leptospermum, Lophomyrtus, Fuscospora, Olearia, Pennantia, Pseudopanax, Pseudowintera etc.) s.l. to 900 m.
Detailed description
Thallus ± orbicular, loosely attached, to 6 cm diam. Lobes whitish-grey to leaden grey when dry, blue-grey when wet, 0.3-0.8(-1) cm wide, often imbricate, broadly cuneate to flabellate, very often with transverse, concentric ridges, apices rounded, margins entire, occasionally minutely notched, ± conspicuously deflexed. Upper surface smooth, somewhat coriaceous, matt, without isidia, rarely with regenerating lobules. Lower surface pale, with numerous rhizines in transverse concentric lines. Rhizines usually white, sometimes bluish-black (then often with white tips) usually not projecting beyond lobe margins. Apothecia frequent, to 1.5 mm diam., disc concave at first becoming plane or convex with age, usually pale reddish-brown often blackened, proper margin pale, sometimes blackened, in old apothecia often occluded, rarely with white projecting hairs at base. Ascospores 11-16 × 5-7 µm.
Similar taxa
Coccocarpia erythroxyli can look similar but the apothecia of that species tend to be brown to dark brown (rather than orange) and embedded slightly in the thallus.
Substrate
Corticolous (twigs)
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (29 November 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (1985, 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.