Lichina intermedia
Synonyms
Lichen confinis, Lichina pygmaea var. intermedia
Family
Lichinaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous habit (coastal rocks); the fruticose, glossy, dark-brown, olive-green to black thallus in clumps or swards; terminal globose apothecia; and simple, colourless, ellipsoidal ascospores, 18–22.5 × 6.5–9.5 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Southland. Stewart Island. Chatham Islands: (Waitangi). Auckland Islands. Campbell Island.
Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America, Oceania, and Australia.
Habitat
Widely distributed on coastal rocks.
Detailed description
Thallus fruticose, erect, tufted, in clumps, or forming ± coalescing swards 1-4(-8) cm diam. Lobes flattened, ± palmately divided, becoming terete only near apices, to 10 mm tall and 0.1-0.2 mm thick, irregularly branched, apices blunt ± furcate, shiny dark brown to black or olive-greenish, gelatinous when wet, with a well-defined cortex of cuboid-rectangular cells. Apothecia terminal, globose or flask-like, 0.1-0.5 mm diam., disc concave. Ascospores broadly to narrowly ellipsoid 18-22.4 × 6.4-9.6 µm, straight, apices rounded.
Substrate
Saxicolous (coastal rocks)
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (28 March 2022). 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.
Schultz M. 2017: Morphological and molecular data support Lichina intermedia as a distinct austral-marine species in the L. pygmaea group. The Lichenologist 49(4): 321-332.