Pertusaria sorodes
Synonyms
Pertusaria subcommunis Nyl.
Family
Pertusariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the pale olive-green to fawnish or yellow-green, wrinkled, plicate or papillate thallus; verruciform apothecia with minute, punctiform black or brown ostioles, 2–10 per verruca; 2-spored asci; broadly ellipsoidal ascospores (120–)160–240(–265) × (40–)50–75(–80) μm, with a wall 13–17 μm thick having conspicuous radial zonation of inner wall.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Three Kings Islands, Whangarei), South Auckland (Waipakahi Valley). South Island: Marlborough (Onamalutu), Otago (Flagstaff, Abbott’s Hill, Dunedin, Akatore), Southland (Waihopai Scenic Reserve Invercargill, Waikoau River, Te Wae Wae Bay). Recently found on Banks Peninsula (Hutchison 2021).
Habitat
Widespread on bark of lowland forest trees and shrubs (Avicennia, Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, Griselinia littoralis, Kunzea ericoides agg., Melicytus ramiflorus, Metrosideros excelsa, Myrsine australis, Lophozonia menziesii).
Detailed description
Thallus pale olive-green or, greenish-grey to fawnish-green or yellowish-green, wrinkled-plicate to verrucose or papillate to areolate-cracked, matt, ± waxy, smooth in parts, in irregular patches, 2-5 cm diam., delimited at margins by a thin, wavy black line of prothallus, margins slightly plicate-radiate, corticolous. Fertile verrucae concolorous with thallus, raised, irregular, locally fused in deformed groups, 2-4(-8) mm diam. Apothecia immersed, 2-4(-8-10) per verruca, ostioles minute, punctiform, black or brown, surface of verrucae slightly puckered at ostiole, margins rounded, irregular, not splitting. Asci 2-spored. Ascospores broadly ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid or oval, both ends round or one end pointed (120-)160-220 × 43-70 µm, wall 13-17 µm thick, radial zonation of inner wall conspicuous.
Chemistry: ? perlatolic acid, 2 unidentified compounds and a xanthone.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (9 October April 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) and 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.
Hutchison M. 2021: iNaturalist observation. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/88801659. Date accessed: 15 June 2023.