Porina exocha
Common name
Porridge lichen
Synonyms
Clathroporina exocha, Clathroporina saxatilis, Porina endochrysea, Porina pustulosa, Verrucaria exocha, Verrucaria wellingtonii,
Family
Porinaceae
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 to saxicolous habit; the thick, wide-spreading, olive-green to yellowish green or buff thallus, raised in irregular mounds and often peeling away from substratum; immersed perithecia in raised tubercles; colourless, ellipsoidal, muriform ascospores, 50–150 × 20–40 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Three Kings Islands to Wellington. South Island: Nelson (Cobb Ridge), Marlborough (Chetwode Islands, d’Urville Island).
Known also from Norfolk Island, northern Queensland, Raratonga and the Cook Islands.
Habitat
On bark of trees and shrubs (Agathus australis, Beilschmiedia taraire, B. tawa, Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, Litsaea calicaris etc.), and on rocks in coastal forest in shade. It is a robust epiphyte, often overgrowing corticolous bryophytes and forming colonies to 20 cm or more in diameter.
Detailed description
Thallus spreading in irregular pathces 5-12(-20) cm diam., corticolous or saxicolous, easily peeled off substrate at maturity, thin (0.9 mm thick), brittle, raised in irregular mounds, olive-green to yellowish-green or buff, dark glaucous green in shade, or shining in parts, wrinkled uneven. Lower surface matt, corticate, brownish-yellow, or buff, bullate-uneven. Prothallus marginal, pale brownish or whitish, crenulate 0.2-0.8 mm wide. Perithecia immersed, globose, in raised tubercles 0.5-0.8(-1.2) mm diam., ostiole brown or brown-black, depressed, at first closed, then open. Ascospores 8 per ascus, colourless, fusiform-ellipsoid, apices slightly apiculate or rounded, muriform, 20-24 locular in c. 6 vertical series, 40-150 × 22-40 µm.
Substrate
Corticoloius, saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (20 December 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (1985) & 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.