Pseudocyphellaria insculpta
Family
Peltigeraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Dark blue-black to almost black when wet, pale olivaceous grey when dry, and a irregularly undulate, conspicuously dimpled, punctate-impressed thallus.
Distribution
Kermadec Islands: (Raoul Island). North Island: (Waima Range - Mt Misery).
Within the New Zealand Botanical Region it was previously collected once from continental New Zealand, from Mt Misery in western Northland, North Island (B.W. Hayward s.n., Jan 1984, AK 228752), though that specimen was inadvertently overlooked by the recent Flora treatment. It has recently been rediscovered at this site (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/26905439) by factsheet author (M. Ford). The absence of further collections of this distinctive species suggests that, in continental New Zealand, it is a scarce species.
Palaeotropical species known from Sri Lanka to the southwest Pacific and northern Australia.
Habitat
The sole Raoul Island collection is copious and came from the upper branches of a cyclone-toppled Kermadec pōhutukawa. In Waima in was noted on the trunk of a heavily shaded towai (Pterophylla sylvicola).
Detailed description
Thallus orbicular to irregularly spreading in entangled clones, 50–120(–200) mm diam., loosely attached centrally, margins and apices free ± ascending. Lobes very variable, irregularly divided, subdichotomously, branching at apices to compleximbricate centrally, 10–40(–80) × 5–10(–40) mm long. Margins irregularly notched or incised, densely phyllidiate to lobulate-phyllidiate. Upper surface dark blue-black to almost black when wet, pale olivaceous grey when dry, irregularly undulate, conspicuously dimpled, punctate-impressed, here and there minutely papillate, rather fragile when dry, flabby when wet, phyllidiate to isidiate-phyllidiate, maculate, without pseudocyphellae or soredia. Maculae frequent, minute, white, effigurate to ± reticulate imparting a delicate marbling to the upper surface. Phyllidia mainly marginal, occasionally also laminal, simple, digitiform to coralloid, terete to flattened-dorsiventral, constricted at base 0.2–0.5(– 1.0) × 1.0–2.0 mm. Isidia scarce, terete, subgranular at first, becoming flattened-phyllidiate. Medulla white. Photobiont cyanobacterial. Lower surface pale yellowbrown or whitish to buff-brown at apices, darkening centrally, glabrous in a narrow to broad marginal zone and tomentose centrally, or uniformly tomentose from margins to centre, tomentum long, silky, white to brown-black, densely entangled to ± felted-woolly. Pseudocyphellae 0.1–1.1 mm diameter, prominent, white, round to irregular, margins raised, concolorous with lower surface, decorticate area flat to convex, sunk in tomentum. Apothecia common, 1.0–2.0(–2.5) mm diameter, rounded, sessile, constricted at base to ± subpedicellate, exciple pale pinkish brown, translucent when wet, wrinkled-striate, with occasional to dense white, sericeous tomentum below, disc plant to subconcave, red-brown, matt, smooth epruinose. Epithecium pale yellow-brown, 8–12 μm thick. Hymenium colourless, 70–85 μm tall. Ascospores 28.0–33.5 × 6.5–8.5 μm, yellow-brown to red-brown, 1–3-septate, ellipsoidfusiform, apices rounded or pointed.
Similar taxa
Pseudocyphellaria insculpta can be confused with P. argyracea. From that species it is easily distinguished by the non-pseudocyphellate upper thallus surface, and phyllidiate condition. Otherwise, the species has a passing resemblance to P. dissimilis from which it is chiefly distinguished by the non-isidiate, phyllidiate condition, and strikingly dimpled, punctate-impressed upper thallus surface.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (21 September 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from de Lange & Galloway (2015).
References and further reading
de Lange P.J., and Galloway D.J. 2015: Lichen notes from the Kermadec Islands. I. Lobariaceae. Bulletin of the Auckland Museum 20: 141-170.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.