Ochrolechia apiculata
Family
Ochrolechiaceae
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
Distribution
Originally described from coastal rocks in the North Island of New Zealand, but it also occurs in similar situations in the South Island.
Habitat
Coastal rocks.
Detailed description
Thallus crustose, saxicolous, to 150 mm wide and 0.2 mm thick, rimose-areolate to irregularly verrucose and warted, corrugated or rarely granulose; upper surface white, pinkish white or grey-white, usually pruinose, C+ red; prothallus marginal, white. Apothecia 1–3 mm wide, broadly adnate but soon sessile and constricted at the base; margins to 2 mm wide, white, smooth to wavy, warted or pustulate, whitepruinose, the cortex C+ red; disc shallowly concave to plane, scabrid, white-pruinose, C+ red. Hypothecium colourless to pale yellow-brown, 65–80 µm thick. Epihymenium brown to dark brown, 30–40 µm thick. Hymenium colourless, 140–200 µm thick, not inspersed, I+ blue. Asci basally apiculate, with 8 or fewer spores (2, 3, 4 or 6). Ascospores broadly ellipsoidal to weakly pyriform, 50–[56.8]–65 × 32–[34.5]–40 µm.
Chemistry: gyrophoric acid [major] and lecanoric acid [minor] in both the apothecia and thallus. Spot tests: Thallus C+ red; amphithecium cortex C+ red, medulla C+ red at least in part; disc C+ red.
Substrate
Saxicolous
Galloway (2007) synonymised this species with Ochrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal. (Fletcher et al. 2009), but the latter does not occur in Australia or New Zealand (McCarthy et al. 2017).
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (10 January 2024). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Fletcher A., James P.W., Purvis O.W. 2009: Ochrolechia A.Massal. (1852). Pp. 626–631 in Smith C.W., Aptroot A., Coppins B.J., Fletcher A., Gilbert O.L., James P.W., Wolseley P.A. (eds), The Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. The British Lichen Society, London.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
McCarthy P.M., ELix J., Kantvilas G., Archer A. 2017: Additional lichen records from Australia 83. Australasian Lichenology 80: 62–77 pp.