Neophyllis melacarpa
Synonyms
Gymnoderma melacarpum, Phyllis melacarpa
Family
Cladoniaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Squamulose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous/terricolous habit; the short, crowded, simple or coralloid, terete to laterally compressed podetia, and the black, peltate, sessile apothecia level with the surface, or slightly sunk below the level of the surface of the podetial crust.
Distribution
North Island: North Auckland (Three Kings Islands) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson (Collingwood) to Fiordland. Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem to Port Pegasus).
Known also from eastern Australia and Tasmania.
Habitat
Widely distributed in forested areas, on tree trunks, decaying logs and on bare soil on the forest floor, coastal and inland, s.l. to 1200 m. It forms clumps among mosses on peaty soil and on decaying stumps in exposed grassland heaths.
Detailed description
Primary thallus squamulose-laciniate, small, convex, sublinear, irregularly lobed-multifid, margins irregularly crenulate. Podetia short 1-3 mm tall, simple or coralloid, terete to laterally compressed, solid, often crowded forming a ± diffract spreading crust. Surface smooth, often shining, occasionally cracked, greenish-brown above, cream or yellowish-brown below. Medulla white. Apothecia sessile on the tips of fertile podetia, often sunk below the surface of clustered sterile podetia, convex, peltate black or brownish-black, shining 0.5-1 mm diam. Ascospores simple, colourless, ovoid-ellipsoid, 5-12 × 4-7 µm.
Chemistry: Thallus and medulla K−, C−, KC−, Pd+ red or ; containing melacarpic, congrayanic, grayanic and fumarprotocetraric acids.
Similar taxa
Wei & Ahti (2002: 21, tab. 1) compare Neophyllis with Gymnoderma, Cladonia and Cetradonia, and compare differences in ascoma development, ascus type and conidiophore type between Neophyllis and Gymnoderma s. str.
Substrate
Terricolous, corticolous (decaying wood).
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (12 February 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.
Wei J.-C. and Ahti T. 2002: Cetradonia, a new genus in the new family Cetradoniaceae (Lecanorales, Ascomycota). Lichenologist 34: 19–31.