Topelia rosea
Synonyms
Microglaena rosea Servít
Family
Graphidaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: OL, SO
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous (basicolous) habit; the thin, pale-brownish grey thallus; numerous semi-immersed perithecia; and thin-walled, hyaline, muriform ascospores, 19-27.5 × 11.5-17 μm.
Distribution
South Island: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes). First record for New Zealand and Southern Hemisphere from a collection of the late John Bartlett – [AK 193118] (McCarthy 1993:12). Chatham Islands: Recently recorded from the Chatham Islands/Rēkohu (de Lange 2023).
Cosmopolitan. Known also from Italy and Greece (Jørgensen & Vězda 1984; Nimis 1993) and from Lord Howe Island (McCarthy 2003, 2006).
Habitat
On calcareous sandstone. On the Chatham Islands/Rēkohu it was described as abundant on undifferentiated Te Whanga limestone and “confined to semi-shaded and shaded rock exposures under a dense canopy of inihina (Melicytus chathamicus) and taupata (Coprosma repens) (de Lange 2023).
Detailed description
Thallus 60-120 μm thick, dull, uneven, pale brownish grey, richly cracked, saxicolous. Perithecia numerous, 0.4–0.6 mm diam., semi-immersed, largely overgrown by thallus. A thick, pale involucrellum usually protrudes, while at the centre of the plane to subconcave apex is a pinkish grey to dark grey-brown ostiole that is ringed internally with short, stiff periphyses. Paraphyses unbranched. Hymenium I+ blue-green. Exciple c. 30 μm thick towards apex and 50–70 μm thick at base. Asci fissitunicate, 140–170 × 16–21 μm, 8-spored. Ascospores uniseriate, hyaline, thin-walled, ellipsoidal to subglobose, muriform, 19–27.5 × 11.5–17μm.
Chemistry: TLC negative.
Substrate
Saxicolous (calcareous rocks)
Only one species of Topelia is known from New Zealand; the first record of the genus in the Southern Hemisphere (McCarthy 1993).
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (14 June 2023). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Extra information sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
de Lange P.J. 2023: iNaturalist observation. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/159000695. Date accessed: 14 June 2023.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
Jørgensen P.M.; Vězda A. 1984: Topelia, a new Mediterranean lichen genus. Beiheft zur Nova Hedwigia 79: 501-510.
McCarthy P.M. 1993: Additional lichen records from New Zealand. 9 Porina sylvatica and Topelina [sic] rosea. Australasian Lichenological Newsletter 33: 12-13.
McCarthy P.M. 2003: Catalogue of Australian lichens. Flora of Australia Supplementary Series 19: 1-237.
McCarthy P.M. 2006: Checklist of the lichens of Australia and its island territories. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 29 March 2006. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/lichenlist/introduction.html
Nimis P.L. 1993: The lichens of Italy. An annotated catalogue. Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino. Monografia XII: 1-897.