Lepra gymnospora
Synonyms
Pertusaria gymnospora
Family
Ochrolechiaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous/muscicolous habit; the thick, whitish lumpy thallus encrusting the substratum, usually leaving details such as bryophyte leaves etc. evident below; the well-developed papillate isidia with apothecia terminal on the papillae; and the presence of protocetraric acid.
Distribution
North Island: South Auckland (Coromandel Peninsula, Pakirarahi, Waimiha). South Island: Westland (Denniston Plateau, Kelly Range), Canterbury (Temple Basin, Arthur’s Pass), Otago (Central Otago mountains, Lammerlaw Range, Rock & Pillar Range etc.); Southland (Fiordland, Deadwood Lagoon below Henry Saddle). Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem, Fraser Peaks).
Also in Australis (SW Tasmania).
Habitat
Overgrowing mosses and plant detritus on ground, or on bark of trees (e.g. Dacrydium cupressinum), alpine to subalpine.
Detailed description
Thallus whitish grey to pale-grey, thick, lumpy and warty, papillate, without a prothallus, spreading over substratum (mosses, bark, detritus) to 20 cm diam. Papillae to 3 mm tall, 0.8–1.2 mm diam., ±cylindrical, constricted slightly at base, simple or occasionally bifurcate, rarely 2–3-confluent; surface verrucose and fissured; apices expanded, ±subglobose, becoming cracked, exfoliating and excavate. Apothecia immersed at tips of papillae, 1–4 per papilla, 0.8–1 mm diam., ±hemispherical, covered by a thin, greyish to pinkish thalline veil. Paraphyses 0.5–1.5 μm thick, densely reticulate, apices swollen to 2.5 μm. Asci clavate, 195–220 × 80–150 μm, walls 7–14 μm thick. Ascospores 1 per ascus, colourless, broadly ellipsoidal to ±globose, 85–180 × 50–150 μm, guttulate, with a gelatinous sheath not dissolving in K, discharge through ruptured. eroding apices of fertile papillae, pale-orange to ±translucent, visible (×10 lens) scattered on surface of thallus and papillae; wall single 2–15(–22) μm thick, internally rough and sculptured when mature, easily broken.
Chemistry: K−, KC−, C−, Pd+ red; containing protocetraric acid.
Similar taxa
It resembles Lepra dactylina; however, that species has more slender, regularly cylindrical and smooth-walled papillae, that are often very numerous and crowded, appearing caespitose.
Substrate
Muscicolous, corticolous, terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (1 May 2023). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Archer A.W.; Elix J.A. 2018: New combinations of Australian species in the genus Lepra Scop. Australasian Lichenology 82: 130-136.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
Wei X.L.; Schmitt .I; Hodkinson B.P.; Flakus A; Kukwa M.; Divakar P.K; Kirik, P.M.; Otte J.; Meiser A.; Lumbsch H.T. 2017: Circumscription of the genus Lepra, a recently resurrected genus to accommodate the “Variolaria”-group of Pertusaria sensu lato (Pertusariales, Ascomycota). PLOS ONE 12(7): 1-14.