Pannaria hookeri
Family
Pannariaceae
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 black apothecial discs with a prominent thalline exciple; the small, narrow, thick lobes with a characteristic whitish grey-striate upper surface and distinctive whitish grey margins; and the saxicolous habit.
Distribution
North Island: Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi). South Island: Nelson (Cobb Valley, Kakapo Peak, Mt Benson, Billie’s Knob Owen Ra.), Marlborough (Mt Tapuaenuku, Lake Tennyson), Canterbury (Phipps Peak, Arthur’s Pass, Mt Misery, Cass, Two Thumbs Ra., Godley Valley, Kirkliston Ra.), Otago (Harris Saddle, Mt Somnus, Bedford Valley Mt Earnslaw, Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Old Man Ra., Dunstan Ra., N Rough Ridge close to Old Dunstan Road, Lammermoor Ra., near Loganburn Reservoir). Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem, Mt Allen, Tin Ra., Magog).
Arctic-alpine in the Northern Hemisphere, from Mt Kenya and known elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere from recently glaciated environments both E and W of the Andean Cordillera in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego S of lat. 49ºS, from Kerguelen, Marion I., Deception I, South Shetlands Is and Charcot I.
Habitat
On schist rocks and schist soils in high-alpine areas of Central Otago and Nelson, on greywacke rocks of glacial moraines in Canterbury and on xeric marble in NW Nelson, 830–2000 m. A specimen collected by John Child from 1982 m on the Remarkables has narrow ascending lobe apices, reminiscent of isidia.
Detailed description
Thallus lobate, almost crustose, very closely attached, in small rosettes or spreading, to 4 cm diam., verrucose-areolate centrally, of flattened, ± radiate-plicate squamules, margins ± placoid, slightly thickened, entire or variously notched or incised, prothallus thin, black, visible between squamules, rarely projecting beyond margins. Upper surface greyish or dull brown, whitish-grey-striate, with distinctly whitish-grey margins. Apothecia ± central, sessile, often crowded, to 2 mm diam., margins conspicuous, entire or coarsely crenate, disc plane or subconvex, black, rarely dark brown, slightly granular. Ascospores ovoid-ellipsoid, smooth-walled, 12-18 × 7-10 µm, epispore ± warted-granular.
Chemistry: PD+ orange; containing pannarin (usually in trace amounts).
Substrate
Saxicolous
Etymology
hookeri: Named after Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (born 1817) - a world famous botanist who travelled on the Antarctic expedition of 1839 under the command of Sir James Ross and wrote “Handbook of New Zealand Flora” published in 1864-67 describing many specimens sent to Kew by collectors. He died in 1911 and has a memorial stone at Westminster Abbey London.
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (17 May 2021). Information in the Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (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.