Peltigera dolichorhiza
Common name
Longroot pelt lichen
Family
Peltigeraceae
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
Characterised by the terricolous/muscicolous habit; a glabrous, glossy upper surface, often wrinkled or dimpled; linear–elongate to rather irregular lobes, with crisped, ascending margins without phyllidia; pale to dark, narrow to broad, slightly raised veins below, with scattered, long, slender, simple to fasciculate, pale-buff to dark-brown or black rhizines. It has a complex chemistry dominated by hopane triterpenoids.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Three Kings Islands, Radar Bush, Kawerua, Poor Knights Islands, Great Barrier Island, Cuvier Island), Auckland (Waitakere Ranges, Rangitoto Island), South Auckland (Hunua Ranges, Maungatawhiri Coromandel Peninsula, Pirongia, Otorohanga, Mangaotaki Valley), Gisborne (Aniwaniwa), Hawke’s Bay (Waikamaka), Wellington (Kaimanawa Ranges, Ohakune, Manawatu Gorge, Tararua Ra., Kapiti Island, Eastbourne). South Island: Nelson (Cobb Ridge, Lake Rotoiti, Westport), Westland (Greymouth, Lake Paringa, Haast Pass, Lichen Creek Waiatoto River), Marlborough (Mt Stokes, Wairau Valley), Canterbury (Lowry Peaks Range, White Horse Hill), Otago (Mt Brewster, Aspiring Hut, Paradise, The Remarkables, Mt Benger, Blue Mts, Mt Cargill, Dunedin Botanic Gardens, Taieri Mouth), Southland (West Dome, McKinnon Pass, Lake Thomson, Spey River, Borland Bog, Lake Hauroko, Rowallan Burn, Awarua Bog). Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem, Maori Beach, Moturau Moana, Oban, Glory Cove, Disappointment Cove Port Pegasus, Bald Cone).
A pantropical and oceanic species widely distributed in the Pacific from Hawai’i and Java to Australia and New Zealand also in Africa and South and Central America.
Habitat
On damp soil, among bryophytes, on the mossy bases of forest trees and tree ferns, on rotting logs in partial to deep shade; on clay banks, in gravel paths, in subalpine bogs, subalpine to high-alpine grasslands, and on mangroves in northern, coastal sites. It has an altitudinal range from s.l. to 1600 m. In alpine grasslands it is found at the base of tussocks, where shade and humidity are high.
Detailed description
Thallus orbicular to spreading, to 20 cm diam. Lobes ± detached, 3-8 cm long and to 1.5 cm wide, margins sinuous, often ascending. Lower surface white to brown, veins pale pinkish or brownish, 0.5-1.5 mm wide, slightly raised, to 0.2 mm tall. Rhizines 5-10(-12) mm long, dark brown-black, rarely simple, mainly fasciculate, tapering towards apices. Apothecia round, 2-5 mm diam., often ± reflexed, on narrow, elevated lobules, disc red-brown, exciple corrugate-scabrid, pale flesh-coloured, margins thin, crenate. Spores brownish, 3-7(-9)-septate, 48-85 × 3-4.5 µm.
Chemistry: ±Tenuiorin, ±methyl gyrophorate, peltidactylin, dolichorrhizin, zeorin, hopane–7β, 22-diol.
Similar taxa
It is distinguished from P. polydactylon by the longer, more slender rhizines and the absence of marginal phyllidia or lobules; and from P. nana by its thicker, more glossy, coriaceous thallus, narrower lobes, and narrower, raised veins and longer rhizines.
Substrate
Terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (3 September 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar taxa 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.