Lepra novaezelandiae
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 habit; disc-like apothecia; 1-spored asci; and the presence of hypothamnolic acid that is responsible for the characteristic violet-purple K reaction.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Mangamuka) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Southland. Stewart Island: (Wilson Bay, Port Pegasus).
Also in Tasmania and eastern Australia from Queensland to Victoria.
Habitat
Widespread, especially on Fuscospora bark in beech forest and on bark of Dacrydium cupressinum and Dracophyllum, both East and West of the Main Divide, s.l. to 1000 m.
Detailed description
Thallus glaucous green to fawnish or grey-green, continuous, wrinkled- plicate to ± papillate, delimited at margins by a thin, dark, wavy line of prothallus, spreading in patches, 3-5 cm diam., matt or shining, occasionally shallowly cracked to ± areolate, sorediate. Soralia in eroding papillae, devoid of hymenial elements, round, 0.05-0.8 mm diam., soredia white or grey-white, granular-farinose. Apothecia rare, mostly immersed deeply in verrucae and obscured by a dense sorediate ‘plug’, hymenia usually eroded; disc dark-grey, densely white-pruinose. Epithecium grey-brown, unchanged in K. Hypothecium brownish grey, unchanged or becoming colourless in K. Hymenium colourless, 150–180 μm thick. Paraphyses densely reticulate, c. 1.0 μm thick. Asci one-spored. Ascospores hyaline, ellipsoidal to cylindrical, sometimes a little curved or broader at one end, (52–)84–150 × (14–)22–48 m, contents guttulate; wall to 5 μm thick, internally smooth, slightly trimmed at apices when old.
Chemistry: Medulla and soredia K+ dark-purple or violet, KC+ reddish violet, C−, Pd−, UV+ white; containing hypothamnolic acid (major), ± conhypothamnolic acid (minor).
Similar taxa
It is distinguished from the superficially similar P. truncata by the K and C reactions (P. truncata is K+ dull orange-yellow, KC+ pink). In addition, P. novaezelandiae has rather thicker and more wrinkled thalli, characteristic papillae that are mostly incipient verrucae; and its verrucae have squashed, broad bases rather than constricted bases as in P. truncata.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (17 October April 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) and 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.