Umbilicaria cylindrica
Common name
Fringed rocktripe lichen
Synonyms
Lichen cylindricus
Family
Umbilicariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous habit; a monophyllous to polyphyllous thallus, 2–10 cm diam.; a grey-pruinose or maculate, smooth to slightly wrinkled upper surface; a strong development of black rhizinomorphs at the margins and on the lower surface (absent from near the umbilicus); a pale pinkish brown, smooth (not scabrid-areolate) lower surface, without thalloconidia; pedicellate, convex apothecia, 0.5–4 mm diam., with strongly gyrose discs; and broadly ellipsoidal to ovoid ascospores, (8.5–)10–13 × 5–6.5(–7) μm. A characteristic member of the alliance Umbilicarion cylindricae in the Northern Hemisphere (James et al. 1977: 374).
Distribution
North Island: Wellington (Ruapehu, Tararua Ranges). Taranaki (Mt Taranaki). South Island: Nelson (St Arnaud Range), Marlborough (Branch River, Inland Kaikoura Range, Mt Fyffe, Crimea Range, Island Saddle), Westland (Fraser Peak, Hill’s Peak), Canterbury (Lewis Pass, Arthur’s Pass, Craigieburn Range, Torlesse Range, Port Hills Christchurch, Tasman Valley, Mt Peel), Otago (Rees Valley, Matukituki Valley, St Marys Range, St Bathans Range, Pisa Range, Dunstan Mts, Old Man Range, Poolburn Reservoir, Richardson Mts, Rock & Pillar Range, Lammermoor Range, Flagstaff, Blue Mountains), Southland (Gertrude Saddle, Ailsa Mountains).
Best developed in the foothill ranges of Canterbury and Marlborough and the mountains of Central Otago.
Cosmopolitan in alpine regions being known from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Greenland, the Ukraine, Siberia, North America, the Himalaya, and Australia (including Tasmania).
Habitat
Subalpine or alpine. On nutrient-poor siliceous rocks in high-light situations, on tops of rock pavement or tops and upper sides of rock outcrops exposed to full sunlight and little shelter, commonly together with Umbilicaria hyperborea, U. polyphylla and U. umbilicarioides, and associating with a community of other high-light-tolerant lichens, including Lecanora polytropa, Lecidea fuscoatrula, L. lapicida, Pseudephebe pubescens, Usnea acromelana, U. ciliata and U. torulosa.
Detailed description
Thallus 2-10 cm diameter, polyphyllous rarely monophyllous, usually raised and somewhat curled, occasionally several thalli develop in rosettes, orbicular to irregular. Upper surface smooth or with a fine reticulum of black lines on a grey, pruinose background, or becoming obscurely wrinkled or areolate-pruinose, margins crenate to torn or incised, rigid to thin, ± perforate with occasional rhizines growing upright from upper surface, dull to subnitid, greyish- brown or pinkish-grey, to dark brown-grey, lower surface smooth or finely granular, creased or bullate, pale pinkish-brown, darker towards umbilicus, margins grey-pruinose. Rhizines sparse to frequent, peripheral and marginal, pale to dark brown, long, cylindrical or flat and branched, umbilicus small, compact. Apothecia marginal or scattered, 2-4 mm diam., pedicellate, stipe and exciple pale-coloured, disc black, plane at first, becoming convex, round to irregular, gyrose, gyrae thin to moderately coarse, often horse-shoe patterned. Hymenium 90-95 µm tall. Paraphyses simple, occasionally branched, colourless, septate, 1.7 µm thick. Hypothecium 160 µm thick, brown, irregular. Ascospores colourless, 8.5-15.3 × 3.4-8.5 µm.
Chemistry: Gyrophoric (major) and lecanoric (minor) acids.
Substrate
Saxicolous
Etymology
cylindrica: From the Latin cylindricus ‘cylindrical, having nearly a true cylindrical form
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (1 May 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.
James P.W.; Hawksworth D.L. and Rose F. 1977: Lichen communities in the British Isles: a preliminary conspectus. In: Seaward, M.R.D. (Ed.) Lichen ecology. London, New York & San Francisco, Academic Press. Pp. 295-413.