Peltigera tereziana
Synonyms
Peltigera subhorizontalis
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 muscicolous/saxicolous habit; the neat, rosette-forming thallus; the white-pruinose margins that are entire to ±phyllidiate, and the characteristic, horizontal apothecia.
Distribution
North Island: South Auckland (Te Whaiti), Hawke’s Bay (Puketitiri). South Island: Nelson (Takaka Hill), Marlborough (Avon Valley, Waihopai Valley), Canterbury (Waiwera Limestone Range, Cass, Kea Point Mt Cook, Godley Valley, Lake Tekapo), Otago (Matutukituki Valley, Routeburn Valley, Paradise, Alexandra, Craig Flat).
Habitat
On soil (both acid and calcareous), often among mosses on rocks or on damp, shady rocky banks or under forest trees, or in short-tussock grassland, 30–1400 m.
Detailed description
Thallus in neat rosettes or irregularly spreading to 1–3(–6) cm diam. Lobes 0.2–0.5(–1) cm wide and 0.5–2 cm long. Margins entire, incised-lacerate to crenulate–lobulate or phyllidiate, occasionally to noticeably white-pruinose (×10 lens) appearing frosted. Upper surface olive-green or yellowish olive-brown to greyish blue, tinged brownish to red-brown, matt, glossy in parts, rarely delicately white-pruinose in parts imparting a frosted appearance to lobes. Lower surface pale whitish buff to dark-brown. Veins flat, to somewhat raised, anastomosing, 0.2–0.8 mm wide, pale- to dark-brown; interstices pale, oval to irregular. Rhizines pale- to dark-brown, simple to densely fasciculate, short, to 2 mm long. Apothecia flat, horizontal, 2–3(–5) mm diam., distinctly raised above thalline margin; disc red-brown to brown-black, epruinose; margins pale-buff, corrugate to minutely lobulate, exciple below scabrid-tomentose. Ascospores uniformly 3-septate, colourless to pale-brownish, elongate–fusiform, 26–32(–38) × 5–8 μm.
Chemistry: TLC−, all reactions negative.
Similar taxa
The only other species in NZ that has white pruina on the lobes is P. neckeri, but P. neckeri has prunia in glistening laminal patches and erect, saddle-shaped apothecia, whereas P. tereziana has pruina restricted to the lobe apices and horizontal, round apothecia.
A number of South Island collections have been cited as P. horizontalis var. muscorum, and referred white-pruinose forms to f.albido-pruniosa noting a similarity to P. frigida, from southern Chile. However, this latter species has much smaller thalli (to 2 cm diam.), lacks marginal phyllidia and pruina, has raised, non-anastomosing veins, and longer, narrower spores (40–44 × 3.5–6 μm).
Substrate
Terricolous, muscicolous, saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (29 August 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.