Solorina crocea
Common name
chocolate chip lichen
Synonyms
Lichen croceus
Family
Peltigeraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the terricolous habit; its broadly lobed, rather thick, olive-greenish brown thallus (greyish or whitish when dry in very exposed habitats); and the characteristic orange, veined-ridged lower surface (K+ purple).
Distribution
South Island: Nelson (Waiau Pass), Westland (Copland Ridge), Canterbury (Craigieburn Range, Torlesse Range, Mt Hutt, Mt Peel, Malte Brun Range, Lower Godley Valley), Otago (Young Valley, Arawata Saddle, Mt Sisyphus, E. Matukituki, Treble Cone, Cascade Basin upper Dart Valley, Hunter Valley, St Bathans Range, Pisa Range, Dunstan Mts, The Remarkables, Hector Mts, Garvie Mts, Old Woman Range, Old Man Range, Rock & Pillar Range), Southland (Mt Burns, Hunter Mts).
Bipolar. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is a high-arctic circumpolar species, being widespread and common at northern latitudes, particularly in oceanic areas.
Habitat
Cushion fellfield and herbfield, 1250–2000 m, on exposed soil, on tops of soil hummocks or stripes and in open, windswept rock pavements, or on shingle ledges. Less commonly it grows in sheltered hollows of soil hummocks or in the lee and at the base of solifluction lobes. As in the Arctic, it prefers disturbed habitats with little competition from other lichens or alpine plants. New Zealand records are the only positively identified Southern Hemisphere populations.
Elsewhere, S. crocea occurs in the Northern Hemisphere as an arctic-alpine lichen; circumboreal lichens being known from tundra, soil crust communities and snow banks in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Greenland, Iceland the Faroes, Europe, the Carpathians, Urals, Tibet, United States, Canada and the Aleutian Islands.
Detailed description
Thallus foliose, distinctly dorsiventral, 1-10 cm broad. Lobes rounded, margins entire, often slightly raised. Upper surface greenish-brown when wet, red-brown when dry, rather scabrid. Photobiont rather discontinuous below upper cortex. Cephalodia internal in ± ovoid colonies above lower surface. Medulla orange (solorinic acid, K+ purple). Lower surface bright orange (solorinic acid), tomentose with a reticulum of brown veins often present. Apothecia oblong to round, plane, not depressed into thallus, disc dark brown, to 1 cm diam. Asci 6-8-spored. Ascospores 1-septate, oblong-ellipsoid, hyaline, becoming brown, 25-45 × 10-12 µm.
Chemistry: Thallus and medulla K+ purple; containing methyl gyrophorate, gyrophoric acid, solorinic acid, norsolorinic acid and solorinine.
Substrate
Terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (5 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.