Phlyctis subuncinata
Synonyms
Phlyctella abstersa, Phlyctella subuncinata, Phlyctis egentior, Phlyctis egentior var. pallidula
Family
Phlyctidaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; irregular, fleck-like, white, sorediate-leprose patches marking the position of immersed, clustered apothecia; hyaline, fusiform, 7-septate ascospores, 40–72 × 5–7 μm; and stictic acid in the medulla.
Distribution
North Island: Northland to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Southland.
Australasian. Known also from East Australia and Tasmania.
Habitat
A widely distributed pioneer species on smooth bark.
Detailed description
Thallus spreading in patches, 3-10 cm diam. Upper surface pale glaucous or greenish-grey to whitish-buff, granular-leprose, scurfy or furfuraceous, thin, eroded-effuse in parts, white-arachnoid at margins. Apothecia very small, 0.1-0.3 mm diam., numerous, scattered, rarely solitary 2- 6(-10) aggregated, innate to ± sessile, disc round to irregular, concave to plane, pale yellow-brown to reddish, translucent, densely white-pruinose, pruina fine, delicately farinose, margins slightly raised, entire, erumpent, densely white farinose-sorediate, macroscopically visible as pale whitish blotches on thallus. Ascospores fusiform, 7-septate, slightly curved (40-)45-62(-72) × 5-6(-7) µm.
Chemistry: Thallus K+ yellow; containing stictic and constictic acids and an unidentified compound.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (14 June 2023). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features 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.