Micarea prasina
Family
Pilocarpaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Squamulose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous/terricolous habit; the pale- to dark-green thallus of densely aggregated goniocysts (gelatinous when moist); subglobose to tuberculate, whitish, greyish, to blackish apothecia, 0.1–0.4 mm diam.; oval–ellipsoidal to oblong, simple to 1-septate ascospores, 8–17 × 1–4 (–5) μm; and pycnidia producing mesoconidia and microconidia.
Distribution
North Island. South Island.
Known also from Great Britain, Europe, the Azores, Canary Is, Scandinavia, North America, South America, Africa and Australia.
The most common and variable species of the genus.
Habitat
On bark, plant debris, soil, rotten stumps, soil in rock crevices, occasionally also on other lichens (Sticta filix, S. latifrons).
Detailed description
Thallus pale-green, or pale to dark grey-green, often ±gelatinous when moist, of thinly scattered to densely aggregated ±globose goniocysts. Goniocysts 12–40(–60) μm diam., the outer hyphae often coated with a greenish K+ violet pigment. Photobiont cells 4–7 μm diam. Apothecia 0.1–0.4(–0.6) mm diam., shallow-convex to subglobose to tuberculate, whitish, pale- to dark-grey, brownish grey or blackish; true exciple poorly developed. Hymenium 25–50 m high; epithecium colourless or dull-greenish, K+ violet. Hypothecium colourless to dull-yellowish. Paraphyses 0.5–1 μm wide, expanded to 1.5 μm at apices. Asci 26–40(–50) × 8–12 μm. Ascospores ovoid–ellipsoidal to oblong, simple to 1(–3)-septate, 8–14(–17) × 2.3–4(–5) μm. Pycnidia white, or greyish around ostiole (due to greenish K+ violet pigment): (1) 50–120 μm diam., emergent to sessile, the ostiole often gaping, with ±cylindrical to narrowly obpyriform mesoconidia, (3.5–)4–6 × 1–1.5 μm; (2) 30–60(–100) μm diam., usually immersed, with cylindrical or narrowly fusiform microconidia, (5–)5.5–8 × 0.5– 1 μm.
Chemistry: Thallus K−, C−, KC−, Pd−; containing up to three unidentified compounds.
Similar taxa
Similar to other members of the genus but separated by the nature of the spores and chemistry.
Substrate
Corticolous, lignicolous, terricolous, lichenicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (5 October 2022). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features 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.