Pseudocyphellaria punctillaris
Family
Peltigeraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
In the field, P. punctillaris is recognised by the rather shortly, more or less subdichotomously branching lobes, white medulla, and the scabrid-areolate upper surface, blue-green photobiont and white pseudocyphellae present on both surfaces of the thallus.
Distribution
Kermadec Islands: (Raoul Island). North Island: Hokianga (Kahakaharoa). Mayor Island (Tuhua).
A palaeotropical species known from Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, Samoa and Hawaii.
Habitat
At Kahakaharoa a specimen was noted growng on sand kānuka (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/58921499).
Detailed description
Thallus 50–150 mm diam., rosetteforming, closely attached from margins to centre. Lobes 5–12 mm wide, broadly rounded, contiguous or imbricate at margins, crowded-imbricate centrally. Margins entire, sinuous, broadly rounded at apices, becoming markedly lobulate-phyllidiate centrally, thickened and sometimes with the lower surface inrolled. Upper surface malachite-green some times glaucous-blue when wet, pale yellowish fawn to brownish (often with darker apices) when dry, undulate, conspicuously verrucose-scabrid, thick, coriaceous, without isidia, maculae or soredia. Phyllidia 0.2–1.5 mm diam., marginal, rarely regenerating from cracks on upper surface, lobulate, joined at base, simple to subcoralloid. Pseudocyphellae 0.1–1.5 mm diam., white, round to elongate, conical-verruciform, margins raise, decorticate area flat; numerous often crowded, conspicuous. Medulla white. Photobiont cyanobacterial. Lower surface pale yellowish white to buff at margins, cinnamon-brown to red-brown centrally, uniformly tomentose from margins to centre, tomentum thick, woolly, pale at margins, brownish or greyish centrally, often obscuring pseudocyphellae. Pseudocyphellae 0.1–1.0 mm diam., white, round to irregular, margins not raised, decorticate area flat or concave, granular; scattered, most noticeable at margins. Pycnidia 0.2–1.0 mm diam., common, prominent, swollen, marginal and laminal, solitary or crowded, ostiole red-brown, punctate. Apothecia 1–3 mm diam., sparse to frequent, submarginal and laminal, central rarely at lobe apices, sessile, constricted at base, round or deformed, shallowly concave to plane, exciple prominent, coarsely verrucose-scabrid, obscuring disc when young, persisting as a coarse, dentate-verrucose margin to disc at maturity, pale brownish, disc shining, slightly roughened, pale to dark red-brown, epruinose. Epithecium red-brown, 8–14 μm thick. Hymenium colourless 110–115 μm tall. Ascospores 1-septate, contents vacuolate, pale red-brown or yellow-brown, broad-ellipsoid, apices pointed or rounded, 25.0–28.0 × 8.5–11.0 μm.
Similar taxa
The species has an admittedly superficial resemblance to P. argyracea ,which differs from P. punctillaris by its isidiate condition.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (21 September 2021). Brief description, Distribution, and Features sections copied from de Lange & Galloway (2015). Habitat adapted from Ford (2020).
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.
Ford M. 2020: Vegetation survey of Kahakaharoa Dunes, Hokianga. Auckland Botanical Society Journal 75(2): 196.