Leptogium malmei
Synonyms
Leptogium menziesii var. fusiporum
Family
Collemataceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by a small, orbicular thallus; short, narrow lobes; a maculate upper surface (×10 lens) without isidia or soredia; a yellow medulla; a cyanobacterial photobiont; and a chemistry dominated by pigments and stictane triterpenoids.
Distribution
North Island: Wellington (Ohakune; Manawatu River). South Island: Nelson (Cobb Valley, Lake Rotoiti), Marlborough (Avon Valley), Canterbury (Godley Valley), Otago (Hidden Falls Stream, Taieri Ridge), Southland (McKinnon Pass, Spey River). Chatham Islands. Recently recorded on Banks Peninsula (Knight 2019).
Also known from high-rainfall areas of southern Chile.
Habitat
Among bryophytes in shaded, high-humidity rainforest habitats from the central North Island to Fiordland and Campbell Island, with an altitudinal range of 100–1320 m. It is still poorly collected in New Zealand and its ecology here largely unknown.
Detailed description
Thallus broadly lobate, orbicular to spreading, 5–8 cm diam., distinctly bluish to bluish grey, not brownish, musicolous, terricolous or corticolous. Lobes broadly orbicular, 5–10(–15) mm wide, papery, margins entire, wavy, sometimes minutely lobulate. Upper surface smooth, not wrinkled, matt or shining, often ±maculate (×10 lens). Lower surface densely white-tomentose, often with a narrow, marginal, glabrous zone concolorous with upper surface or paler. Apothecia occasional to abundant and then closely crowded together, sessile to subpedicellate, round to irregular, 0.2–1.5 mm diam., disc matt, yellow-brown to red-brown, concave to plane to subconvex, proper exciple prominent, paler than disc to ±whitish, thalline exciple reduced to a few scattered lobules, concolorous with thallus, generally absent, rarely with short white, silky marginal hairs and longer basal hairs. Epithecium yellow-brown to 12.5 μm thick. Hymenium colourless, 110–130 μm tall. Hypothecium opaque, pale brownish. Ascospores broadly ellipsoidal with pointed apices, sometimes ±apiculate at one or both ends, submuriform, 4–6 (–8) transverse septa and 1–3 vertical septa, (20–)25–35(–40) × 8–12(–14) μm.
Similar taxa
Leptogium malmei is closely similar to L. menziesii, but is distinguished from it by the distinctive bluish colour, the sessile apothecia that are often produced in profusion, and have a very thin margin, and the larger, acuminate ascospores, 25–35(–40) × 8–12(–14) μm. New Zealand material studied shows some variation in spore size, with material from drier, eastern sites having spores that are slightly smaller (20–25 μm) than those from wetter, western sites, which have generally longer and slightly broader spores. The species has a fairly constant morphology and colour and is readily separated from L. menziesii, which has lobes that are brownish, especially at the margins, and which also does not produce either laminal or marginal isidia or phyllidia.
Substrate
Ground, moss
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (3 March 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (2007).
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.
Knight A. 2019: iNaturalist observation of Leptogium malmei. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/23882782. Date accessed: 7 June 2023.