Roccellinastrum neglectum
Common name
Lingere lichen, lacy underwear lichen
Family
Byssolomataceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Filamentous
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the soft, terete, byssoid-spongiose richly branched lobes; apothecia borne mainly at the lobe tips; the frequently long, stipitate fruiting bodies; simple spores; and the presence of protocetraric and squamatic acids (Pd+ red).
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Waipoua Forest, near Tane Mahuta, Mt Tutamoe, Waima State Forest, Mt Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Little Barrier Island), sine loco (Colenso – BM), Auckland (Waitakere Ranges), South Auckland (Table Mountain, Camel’s Back, Coromandel Ranges), Taranaki (Mt Taranaki), Wellington (Tararua Ranges, Orongorongo Valley). South Island: Nelson (Marborough (Mt Maud, d’Urville Island, Mt Stokes), Westland (Ngahere, Greymouth, Hokitika, Kelly Range), Southland (Fiordland, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Henry Saddle, Grebe Valley, Borland Lodge, Monowai). Stewart Island: (Islet Cove, Port Pegasus).
Known also from Tasmania.
Habitat
On bark among mosses and ferns in deep shade in high-rainfall, forested areas, where it grows on bark, tree fern brush, vines, mosses, liverworts and ferns (common on dead filmy ferns) or directly on the leaves and stems of shrubs.
Detailed description
Thallus greenish-white when fresh, becoming yellowish on storage, byssoid- spongiose or cottony, the surface interspersed with granules. Lobes terete, or in part flattened, branched, densely aggregated, attached to substrate by single hyphae or with only a short side branch at point of contact. Branched lobes to 5 mm long and 0.2-0.4(-0.8) mm wide, of thick-walled, regularly branched hyphae forming a cylindrical, netlike structure. Apothecia and pycnidia formed in outer hyphal layer of lobes, predominantly at lobe tips and side branches. Apothecia globose, 0.3-0.4 mm diam., stipitate, pale or discoloured reddish, lecideine without proper margin, stalks simple or branched, to 1 mm tall, fruiting parts often compound, centre of apothecium and stalk becoming hollow and interspersed with pigment crystals. Stipe already developed in young primordia. Excipulum of branched, radiating hyphae with strongly gelatinising walls, not sharply delimited from branched paraphyses of hymenium and intergrading into palisade-like outer layer of apothecial stalk. Hymenium 25-40 µm tall. Hypothecium colourless, 15-20 µm thick. Paraphyses c. 1.5 µm thick. Asci cylindrical, with amyloid cap or ring structure in thickened apex. Ascospores colourless, bacilliform simple.
Chemistry: K−, C−, KC−, Pd+ red; containing protocetraric and squamatic acids and traces of two unidentified compounds.
Similar taxa
It is distinct from Sagenidium molle [Lecanactis mollis], which has Trentepohlia as photobiont, spreading rosettes rather than discrete lobes, a blue-grey rather than a creamish tinge, inhabits the very dry underside of mature, inclined tree trunks and large branches, has 5-septate spores, and contains lepraric acid (Pd –).
Substrate
Corticolous (bark, stems), foliicolous (common on ferns), muscicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (16 February 2022). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar taxa 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.