Nephroma australe
Synonyms
Nephroma australe f. homalodes, Nephroma australe var. rigidum, Nephroma homalodes, Nephroma pruinosum, Nephroma resupinatum var. pruinosum, Nephroma schizocarpum, Nephroma zelandicum f. squamaecolum, Nephroma zelandicum, Opisteria australis, Opisteria homalodes, Opisteria schizocarpa
Family
Nephromataceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
A common epiphyte of bark or twigs in humid, undisturbed habitats. Photobiont green, internal cephalodia containing blue-green algae, thallus yellow to green or brownish. It varies considerably in form from large, broad-lobed specimens from on moss, or rocks or on tree trunks, to small-lobed individuals with marginal lobules or squamules, growing on twigs. Thalli may also be horizontal and closely appressed or else have ascending lobes. Other differences include thallus colour, the extent of lobation or splitting of the apothecium (as in N. schizocarpum), and a wide range of variation in spore size and hymenium height.
Distribution
North Island: South Auckland (Hunua Ranges) to Wellington – apparently not further north than Auckland. South Island: Nelson to Southland both E and W of the Main Divide. Stewart Island. Chatham Islands.
Also in south-east Australia and Tasmania, Juan Fernandez, southern Chile and Argentina.
Habitat
Widespread, lowland, in humid places mainly on bark and twigs, also on damp rocks among mosses.
Detailed description
Thallus orbicular when substrate allows, to spreading, 2-10 cm diam., variously lobed. Lobes ascending at apices, often imbricate, rather thin, margins entire or ± lobulate. Upper surface smooth, shining, yellowish-green (usnic acid) or yellow (in bright sunlight) or greenish-brown (in shade), wrinkled, cracked, undulate, without isidia, soredia, maculae or pseudocyphellae. Lower surface pale creamish or buff to brown, smooth or wrinkled, whitish at margins. Apothecia round to reniform or rarely shallowly lobed, disc red-brown, matt or shining, smooth, margins entire, pale, slightly raised, upper surface areolate-scabrid. Ascospores pale reddish-brown, 3-septate, 17-22 × 5-7 µm.
Chemistry: Hopane-6α, 22-diol (zeorin) and usnic acid and either hypostictic and hyposalazinic acids, or a series of unidentified triterpenoids. There appear to be two chemodemes in this species.
Similar taxa
It is easily distinguished from all the other species of Nephroma in New Zealand, as it is the only species that has a green algal symbiont (all other Nephroma species in New Zealand are cyanobacterial).
Substrate
Corticolous, saxicolous
Etymology
australe: Southern, from the Latin australis
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (29 December 2021). 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.