Pannaria pyxinoides
Common name
Pyxine Pannaria
Family
Pannariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
Not Evaluated
Brief description
Appressed corticolous lichen, often with numerous apothecia. In forests of northern New Zealand.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Herekino, Warawara, Waipoua), Little Barrier Island, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula.
Habitat
Native forest in northern New Zealand.
Detailed description
Thallus foliose, corticolous, forming adnate rosettes 2–7 cm diam. Lobes 100–150 µm thick, 0.5–1 mm wide and up to 15 mm long, convex to flat, margins entire; monopodially to subdichotomously or irregularly and often weakly branched, resulting in lobes with parallel orientation, coalescing centrally where thin and adnate secondary lobules frequently develop. Upper surface smooth, weakly glossy, uneven in older parts; when alive, pale greyish green when dry, lettuce-green when moist, turning pale ochraceous or weakly brownish after longterm storage. Upper cortex 20–30 µm thick, plectenchymatous, lumina 5–8 µm wide, walls 1.5–2 µm thick. Photobiont layer 20–30 µm thick, of either cf. Myrmecia or cf. Trebouxia cells, globose to subglobose, 2–6 µm diam. Medulla lax, 60–80 µm thick, pale brownpigmented on the exposed, ecorticate and erhizinate lower part. Hypothallus/prothallus not observed. Cephalodia common, pulvinate to placodioid, 0.5–2 mm diam.; cyanobiont Nostoc, cells deep green, globose to irregularly ellipsoid, 3–7 µm diam., organized within glomerules, without visible chain structures. Apothecia common, substipitate,1–2.5 mm diam.; disc pale reddish brown, mostly flat, without concentric rings or thalline granules; thalline excipulum c. 0.2 mm wide, finely striate-crenulate with striae 0.1–0.15 mm broad. Epithecium pale brown, 20–30 µm thick; hymenium c. 90–100 µm thick, IKI+ deep blue; hypothecium pale brown, 50–60 µm thick. Asci clavate, 70–80 × 15 µm, no IKI+ internal structures seen, with 8 ascospores. Ascospores entire, regularly ellipsoid to ovoid, ends broadly obtuse, short- to elongate-ellipsoid, 12–15 × 6–9 µm; perispores seen as a few scattered low verrucae on some spores, and without apical extensions, but mostly not visible apart from very small verrucae, 0.5–1 µm wide on immature spores. Pycnidia common in some specimens, elevated and verrucose, 0.1–0.25 × 0.1–0.25 µm, ostiole brown, spermatia bacilliform, 2.5 × 0.5 µm.
Chemistry: containing vicanicin.
Similar taxa
This species differs from Pannaria sphinctrina in having more adnate and thinner lobes, which are often more parallel-oriented, and by verrucose pycnidia and smaller spores. Perispores are usually not visible on mature spores, although sometimes a few low verrucae are present, and the large apical extensions characteristic of P. sphinctrina are always absent. Immature spores have verrucae, but they are much smaller than those observed in P. sphinctrina. Old herbarium specimens do not become dark chesntnut-brown in colour as do those of P. sphinctrina.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (8 August 2022). Information in the Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Elvebakk (2018).
References and further reading
Elvebakk, A. 2018: Pannaria pyxinoides comb. nov., an overlooked lichen from Northern New Zealand. Australasian Lichenology 83: 36-41.