Miltidea ceroplasta
Synonyms
Bacidia ceroplasta, Biatora ceroplasta, Biatora rubricatula, Lecidea ceroplasta, Lecidea cinnabaroides, Lecidea rubricatula, Lecidea rutilescens, Lecidea subrutila, Lecidea venusta, Lecidea venustula, Miltidea rutilescens, Miltidea subrutila, Miltidea venusta, Miltidea venustula, Patellaria ceroplasta.
Family
Miltideaceae
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; a pale greenish grey, glaucous-green to pale-greyish, continuous, areolate, matt or shining to somewhat minutely white-papillate, crustose thallus; scattered, orange-red to red-brown (K+ purple) apothecia; dense, granular, yellow-brown epithecium (K+ purple); a colourless hymenium 60–85 μm tall, conspicuously inspersed with oil droplets; cylindrical–clavate asci with apical structures, Miltidea-type; and colourless, simple ellipsoidal, halonate, ascospores, 11–25 × 7–9 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Warawara State Forest, Waipoua Forest, Tutamoe, Little Barrier Island, Great Barrier Island), South Auckland (Te Aroha, Kaimai Ranges), Wellington (Horopito, Limestone Plateau NW Ruahine Ranges, Rimutaka Ranges), South Island: Nelson (Dun Mountain), Marlborough (Lookout Peak, Ship Cove, d’Urville Island), Canterbury (Broken River), Stewart Island: (Noble Island, Islet Cove Port Pegasus).
Known also in Tasmania Australia, and from Chile, Sri Lanka, and Argentina.
Habitat
Throughout, on bark of Agathis australis, Dacrydium cupressinum, Griselinia littoralis, Knightia excelsa, Kunzea ericoides [Kunzea spp.], Leptospermum scoparium, Hoheria, Nothofagus menziesii [Lophozonia menziesii], N. solandri var. cliffortioides [Fuscospora cliffortioides], Weinmannia racemosa; lowland to subalpine.
Detailed description
Thallus pale greenish-grey, glaucous-green to pale greyish or brownish, ± areolate-cracked, or ± continuous, areolae plane or subconvex, matt or shining, ± translucent in parts, smooth or minutely white-papillate or tuberculate, with numerous minute, reddish, granular apothecial initials(?), in irregular patches 2-8(-10) cm diam. Apothecia scattered, single, rarely paired and then deformed through mutual pressure, sessile, 0.1-2.5 mm diam., plane to convex, disc orange-red to red-brown (K+ purple) or rust-red, smooth or minutely granular, epruinose, translucent when wet, margins thin, entire to ± crenulate or verrucose, persistent, or ± excluded at maturity, concolorous with disc or paler. Epithecium dense, granular, yellow-brown, opaque, K+ purple-magenta, 9-15 µm thick. Hymenium markedly inspersed with granules and oil droplets, colourless, 60-85 µm tall. Paraphyses simple, septate, 1-2 µm diam., clavate, brownish, granular at apices and there 3-5 µm diam. Asci clavate, 68-75 × 10-14 µm. Ascospores uniseriate or biseriate, ellipsoid, ends rounded, (11-)12-21(-25) × (5-)7-9(-11) µm.
Chemistry: Four unidentified pigments (K+ purple) related to parietin.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (19 January 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.