Ramboldia laeta
Synonyms
Lecidea laeta, Pyrrhospora laeta
Family
Lecanoraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the grey-white to glaucous-grey, continuous to ±granular-papillate or ±areolate thallus, which is often eroded or lacking; the scattered to clustered small, rounded, orange-red (K+ purple) apothecia, 0.1–1 mm diam., with thin, entire to subcrenulate, concolorous margins; and narrowly cylindrical ascospores, 10–19 × 1.5–4(–7) μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Little Barrier Island), Wellington (Tongariro National Park, Rangipo Desert). South Island: Nelson (Cobb Valley, Lake Rotoiti), Canterbury (Arthur’s Pass, Hawdon River Cass), Otago (Rees Valley, Mt Teviot, Blue Mts, Swampy Hill Dunedin, Wairongoa), Southland (Awarua Bog).
Austral. Known also from Tasmania and Australia and on Nothofagus bark in forests of Tierra del Fuego (unpublished observations).
Habitat
On decorticated wood (dead terminal twigs) of Coprosma, Dracophyllum, Hebe, Leptospermum scoparium, Melicytus alpinus, Podocarpus totara and smooth bark of Fuscospora cliffortioides. In some places it appears to be a rapid and early coloniser, as dead terminal twigs of small bushes of Leptospermum scoparium developed on a surface burned 17 years ago (Awarua Bog) supported reasonably large numbers of thalli that comprised the major lichen cover for this substratum.
Detailed description
Thallus effuse or not apparent, grey-white or glaucous greyish, granular-papillate to areolate, areolae convex, minutely papillate, often eroded or lacking, not sorediate, in patches 5–30 mm diam. Prothallus absent. Apothecia prominent, scattered to crowded, biatorine, sessile, (0.1–)0.5–1(–2) mm diam., rounded to contorted-conglomerate, disc convex, matt, smooth to subplicate, waxy, orange-red to cinnabar-red; proper margin thin, entire, concolorous with disc or slightly paler. Epithecium densely granular, heavily conglutinate, orange-red, 10–15 μm thick. Hymenium 65–80 μm tall, pale-orange to hyaline, densely streaked with orange-red granules and richly inspersed with oil droplets. Paraphyses densely conglutinate, septate, not branched, 2–3 μm thick, apices not, or only very slightly, swollen. Asci clavate or cylindrical-clavate, 30–36 × 6.8–8.5 μm, 8-spored. Ascospores narrowly cylindrical, with a very thin, pseudoseptum developing towards one end of the spore, (10–)11.5–13.5(–19) × (1.5–)3–4(–7) μm.
Chemistry: Thallus K−; apothecia K+ reddish purple; containing parietin.
Substrate
Corticolous
Etymology
laeta: Happy or vivid
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (16 June 2023). 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.