Psoroma asperellum
Family
Pannariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Squamulose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by: the muscicolous habit; the delicately squamulose thallus, the squamules markedly ascending from a thin to thick, black basal prothallus; the blue-grey, placodioid or minutely to deeply lobed cephalodia; the prominent, scattered yellow-orange to pale red-brown apothecial discs with crenulate to subsquamulose margins; and fusiform-ellipsoidal ascospores, 12–25 × 8–10 μm.
Distribution
North Island: South Auckland (Mt Maungatawhiri Coromandel Peninsula, Mangaotaki Stream near Pio Pio, Waiotapu near Rotorua), Wellington (York Bay). South Island: Nelson (St Arnaud Ra., Travers Valley, Maruia Valley), Westland (Aorangi Reserve near Greymouth, Mt McFarlane), Canterbury (Arthur’s Pass, Alford Forest, Otepatoto Reserve Banks Peninsula, Waihi Gorge), Otago (Ocean Peak), Southland (Secretary I., Lake Monowai, Longwood Ra., Riverton). Stewart Island: (Ulva I., Port Pegasus).
Known also from south east Australia, Tasmania and Marion Island.
Habitat
Characteristically overgrowing mosses in damp, humid sites in lowland, mainly coastal forest, rarely on soil inland.
Detailed description
Thallus small, squamulose, epiphytic on mosses in scattered colonies, to 3 cm diam., or on bark to 5 cm diam., squamules ascendent from an occasionally present, fine, black prothallus. Squamules small, delicate 0.3-0.8 mm wide, rounded, incised, minutely lobulate, rather loosely developed, not forming a tight crust, ascendent, pale greenish-grey to bright lettuce-green when wet, pale whitish-grey on storage, surface smooth, matt, not pruinose at margins, dispersed to crowded-imbricate. Cephalodia ± frequent, pale grey-blue, laminal and marginal, flattened, placodioid or minutely lobed, squamulose. Lower surface white, ± corticate, rhizines few or absent. Apothecia sessile, ± frequent, round, disc pale yellow-orange to pale red-brown, conspicuous, 0.5-1.5 mm diam., plane to subconvex, matt, continuous, eperforate, not gyrose-etched or pruinose, margins crenulate to minutely subsquamulose, overlying a thin, entire, pale proper margin. Ascospores ellipsoid-fusiform, 12-25 × 8-10 µm.
Chemistry: TLC−, all reactions negative.
Substrate
Musicolous, corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (25 August 2021). 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.