Pycnothelia caliginosa
Family
Cladoniaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered | Qualifiers: DP, RR, Sp, TO
Brief description
Characterised by the terricolous habit; the grey-white, granular to subsquamulose thallus developed on a thick, fibrous, black prothallus; erect or decumbent, hollow, terete to somewhat flattened podetia, terminated by black, convex, spherical to conglomerate apothecia.
Distribution
South Island: Nelson (Cobb Valley, Tasman Mts, Denniston Plateau). One of several taxa that have a rather restricted distribution in Nelson and South West Tasmania.
Habitat
On peaty soils and on quartzite sand in exposed grassland where considerable areas of bare soil are present, sometimes inundated. It occurs with the following lichens: Austropeltum glareosum, Cladia aggregata, Cladonia murrayi, C. southlandica, C. subsubulata, Siphula complanata, S. decumbens, S. elixii, S. foliacea, S. fragilis and S. jamesii.
Detailed description
Primary thallus granular, appearing subsquamulose, granules convex at first, 0.1–0.5 mm diam., occasionally discrete, normally continuous, forming flattened or convex, concrescent, irregular patches 2–20 cm diam., often appearing somewhat areolate or spreading ± uniformly over soil, sometimes on a thin to thick, fibrous, black prothallus, granules grey-white, sometimes blackened in parts, surface smooth to roughened. Podetia occasional to frequent, erect or decumbent, hollow, terete or somewhat flattened, simple, finger-like to branched, proliferating towards apices, 0.5–1.5(–2) cm tall, 103 mm diam., thinly or thickly covered with thalline granules from base to apex, or decorticate in patches or completely decorticate and exposing brown-black cartilaginous medullary strands; sometimes longitudinally fissured or fistulose. Apothecia black, convex, spherical to ±conglomerate, shining, immarginate, solitary or clustered, 0.5–1.5(–2) mm diam. Ascospores 10–5–12 × 2–5–4(–4.5) μm. Pycnidia at apices of short stalks or on lateral branches of podetia, or on thalline granules, short (0.5 mm or less), variable, cylindrical or tapering, solitary to densely clustered. Conidia falciform, 4–5 –5 × 0.5 μm.
Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow; containing atranorin and chloroatranorin plus three unidentified compounds including two aliphatic acids.
Similar taxa
Similar to Cladonia but separated by its greyish white nodular-squamulose primary thallus, black prothallus, secondary subterete thallus that is simple or sparingly branched, and glossy, black apothecia that form conglomerate clusters.
Substrate
Terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (18 April 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (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.