Porpidia albocaerulescens
Common name
Smokey-eyed boulder lichen
Synonyms
Huilia albocaerulescens, Lichen albocaerulescens
Family
Lecideaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous habit; the thick, pale-greyish thallus; sunken apothecia with a densely white-pruinose disc; large ascospores, 18–23 × 7.5–9 μm; and stictic acid in the medulla.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Three Kings Islands), Auckland (Rangitoto Island) to Wellington on both east and west coasts. South Island: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes), Marlborough (Kaikoura) to Westland (Bruce Bay).
Known also from Europe, E North America, and SE Asia including Indonesia. It is not known from the Mediterranean area (including Macaronesia), the oceanic parts of Western Europe, Great Britain or Fennoscandia.
Habitat
A lowland species, commonly collected from maritime rocks.
Detailed description
Thallus thick, whitish-chalky, in circular patches or spreading on pebbles and stones, 2-5(-8) cm diam., minutely verrucose-uneven, areolate-cracked centrally, ± placodioid at margins. Apothecia frequent, immersed to sessile, scattered 0.5-3.5 mm diam., disc concave to plane to sub-convex, blue-black to black, finely white-pruinose, margins thin or thick, black or blue-black, persistent, crenulate. Epithecium olive-brown or brown-black to 15 µm thick. Hymenium colourless, 80-120 µm. Hypothecium very well developed, dark brown to black. Paraphyses delicate, 1.5 µm thick, capitate at apices, to 3 µm thick. Excipulum with relatively narrow brown-black marginal zone. Ascospores ellipsoid, 13-18(-22) × 6-8.5 µm.
Chemistry: Cortex K−, C−, Pd−; medulla K+ yellow, C−, Pd + orange; containing stictic (major), constictic (minor), norstictic (minor or tr.) acids. A chemodeme with norstictic acid (major) and connorstictic acid (minor) is also recorded.
Substrate
Saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (3 September 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Extra information 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.