Dermatocarpon miniatum var. complicatum
Synonyms
Dermatocarpon weberi, Lichen miniatus var. complicatum, Lichen weberi
Family
Verrucariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: RR, SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous habit; the thick, coriaceous, umbilicate, often caespitose–congested thallus (bright-green when wet, greyish brown when dry); and a negative reaction of the medulla to Melzer’s Iodine reagent.
Recorded in earlier accounts of New Zealand lichens as Endocarpon fluviatile and Dermatocarpon fluviatile, and as Dermatocarpon weberi (Galloway 1985a: 156).
Distribution
North Island: Sine loco (Colenso). South Island: Nelson (Mt Cobb), Canterbury (Upper Godley Valley, Rangitata Gorge), Otago (Central Otago mountains, Poolburn Dam, Kakanui Mountains). Stewart Island: (Deceit Peaks).
Cosmopolitan. Widely distributed in temperate to arctic habitats in the Northern Hemisphere. Not known from Australia.
Habitat
On rocks near rivers or watercourses, often in drainage joints or channels on sloping rocks periodically inundated with water, mainly subalpine, 350-1580 m.
Detailed description
Thallus foliose, heteromerous, attached to substratum by a ±central umbilicus or holdfast; without rhizohyphae or rhizines. Upper surface ±finely scabrid to dull, grey to dark-brown, ±whitish-pruinose, mainly smooth but with slightly raised or papillate spots of ostioles of ascomata or conidiomata. Lower surface smooth, verrucose or veined, without tomentum. Upper cortex pseudoparenchymatous, gells ±globose. Lower cortex, of several rows of pachydermatous cells (of Dermatocarpon-type). Photobiont green, chlorococcoid. Medulla of thin, filamentous hyphae. Ascomata perithecia, laminal, completely immersed in thallus, uniloculate, globose. Involucrellum absent. Exciple hyaline. Hamathecium of periphyses. Asci bitunicate, 8-spored, cylindrical–clavate to saccate, thick-walled, Verrucaria-type; apical dome distinct in young asci and with an ocular chamber, but becoming reduced and ±absent in mature asci. Ascospores simple, globose to narrowly ellipsoidal or ovoid, colourless, smooth, without a perispore. Conidiomata pycnidia, immersed, similar in size to perithecia, wall colourless. Conidia bacilliform, simple, colourless.
Chemistry: TLC−.
Similar taxa
Species of Catapyrenium and Placidium are distinguished from Dermatocarpon by having a lower surface with numerous rhizines or rhizohyphae.
Substrate
Saxicolous
Dermatocarpon, included in the family Verrucariaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004), is the sole foliose member of that family and is a genus of wide distribution, comprising c. 35 species (Glavich & Geiser 2004; Heiðmarsson & Breuss 2004) found mainly on damp rocks (acid and basic) by streams, rivers or lakes. A molecular study of D. miniatum (the generitype) and allied taxa is recorded in Heiðmarsson (2003). New Zealand taxa formerly included in Dermatocarpon (Galloway 1985a: 155–157) are now placed in Catapyrenium (q.v.). One species is recorded from New Zealand.
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (2 March 2023). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985, 2007).
References and further reading
Eriksson O.E.; Baral H.-O.; Currah R.S.; Hansen K.; Kurtzman C.P.; Rambold G. and Laessøe T. 2004: Outline of Ascomycota – 2004. Myconet 10: 1-99.
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.
Glavich D.A. and Geiser L.H. 2004: Dermatocarpon meiophyllizum Vainio in the US Pacific Northwest. Evansia 21: 137-140.
Heiðmarsson S. 2003: Molecular study of Dermatocarpon miniatum (Verrucariales) and allied taxa. Mycological Research 107: 459-468.
Pennycook S.R. and Galloway D.J. 2004: Checklist of New Zealand “Fungi”. In: McKenzie, E.H.C. (Ed.) Introduction to fungi of New Zealand. Fungi of New Zealand/Ngā Harore o Aoteroa Volume 1. Fungal Diversity Research Series 14: 401-488.