Psoroma fruticulosum
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 terricolous habit; the squamulose to small-laciniate thallus forming dense swards or cushions to 8 cm diam., and without a marginal prothallus; thalline squamules that are laciniate, erect, congested, laterally compressed, ±spathulate apically, and with a distinctive roughened surface, scabrid to areolate, and brownish green to tawny yellow or red-brown to somewhat blackened in colour; cephalodia are marginal at the base of laciniae; apothecia are often large, 3–10 mm diam., and expanded above tips of laciniae, the disc plane to undulate to deeply cupulate, red-brown to brown-black, the margins being subentire to verrucose or crenate-striate; and with ellipsoidal ascospores, 18–23 × 6–10 μm, with a 3-μm-thick perispore.
Distribution
North Island: Taranaki (Mt Taranaki), Wellington (Tararua Range). South Island: Nelson (Mt Peel, St Arnaud Range, Lake Rotoiti, Crimea Range), Westland (Franz Josef Glacier), Canterbury (Nina Valley, Arthur’s Pass, Woolshed Hill, Craigieburn Range, Upper Godley Valley, Mt Peel, Four Peaks Range), Otago (Forgotten River, French Ridge Matukituki Valley, Dredgeburn, Rockburn Gorge, Humboldt Mts, Dart Valley, Kea Basin, the Remarkables, Mt Pisa, Dunstan Mts, Old Man Range, Hawkdun Mts, Rock & Pillar Range, Umbrella Mts, Silver Peaks, Swampy Hill, Flagstaff, Maungatua), Southland (Homer, Lake Thomson, Mt Clerke Resolution Island, Dusky Sound, Lake Manapouri, Borland Saddle, Hokonui Hills). Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem, Mt Allen). Auckland Islands: (Eden Ridge, Bivouac Hill). Campbell Island.
Known also from Australia where it is rare, from southern South America and recently recorded from the mountains of Transvaal in South Africa.
Habitat
A subalpine to high-alpine species of characteristic mat-forming habit, often among mosses on soil, in drainage cracks, stream beds and lake shores and in ±damp crevices in fellfield.
Detailed description
Thallus ± squamulose or small-laciniate, without prothallus or attaching rhizines, in ± dense swards or cushions to 8 cm diam., though usually 2-5 cm diam. Squamules laciniate, erect, congested, closely compacted, ± spathulate at apices, laterally compressed, with a ± distinctly roughened upper surface and a pale ventral surface, rarely terete, 2-6 mm tall, branches 0.1-1.0 mm wide to 3 mm long and c. 0.5 mm thick, thicker at apices, normally erect but occasionally flattened, spreading. Upper surface matt, uneven, scabrid, areolate-cracked at centre, smooth, ± waxy at apices, brownish-green to tawny yellow or red-brown or marginally blackened. Lower surface ± uniformly downy-pubescent, pale buff or whitish. Cephalodia marginal, at base of laciniae, laterally compressed, spathulate, yellow-brown to blackish at centre, grey- blue at apices and often also white-pubescent, ± wrinkled-plicate in parts. Apothecia initially on upper surface of laciniae, often large and expanded above laciniae 3-11 mm diam., disc plane to undulate, concave to deeply cupuliform, becoming convex, matt, epruinose, red-brown to brown-black, yellow-brown in sheltered habitats, margins subentire to verrucose or ± crenate-striate, thalline exciple verrucose-areolate, concolorous with thallus. Ascospores 18-23 × 6-10 µm, epispore hyaline, to 3 µm thick.
Chemistry: TLC−, all reactions negative.
Substrate
Terricolous
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.