Usnea rubicunda
Common name
Red beard lichen
Synonyms
Usnea rubescens, Usnea spilota
Family
Parmeliaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous (rarely saxicolous) habit; the reddish colour of the cortex (varying from pale-rose to dark reddish brown), pale at base; spinules and fibrils that give a somewhat “bristling” appearance to the thallus; and salazinic and norstictic acids in the medulla.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Three Kings Islands, Herekino Gorge, Kawerua, Cavalli Islands, Bay of Islands, Tutamoe, Heni Island, Great Barrier Island, Whangarei, Waiheke Island, Glorit) Auckland (Auckland City, Rangitoto Island), South Auckland (Coromandel Peninsula, Whitianga, Great Mercury Island, Slipper Island, Shoe Island, Te Aroha, Kaimai Ranges, Rotorua, Paremoremo, Hamilton, Pio Pio), Wellington (Erua, Totara Reserve, Levin, Kapiti Island, Rimutaka Ranges). South Island: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes, Lake Rotoroa, Inangahua Junction), Marlborough (d’Urville Island, Chetwode Islands), Westland (Greymouth, Fox Glacier), Canterbury (Boyle River, Arthur’s Pass, Riccarton Bush, Waihi Gorge), Otago (Flagstaff, Mt Charles, Saddle Hill, Taieri Mouth, Akatore), Southland (Forest Hill, Thomson’s Bush Invercargill).
Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Asia, North and South America, East Africa, the Pacific, and Australia.
Habitat
Throughout, on trees (both native and introduced), decorticated wood (gates, fenceposts, power poles, wooden buildings etc.) and rocks, lowland and coastal. Very common and polymorphic.
Detailed description
Thallus fruticose to subpendulous, 5-10(-30) cm tall, glaucous-greenish to reddish, pale at base. Branches tapering towards apices, terete, rather stout towards base, 1-2.5 mm diam., spinules and fibrils often giving a bristling appearance to branch, papillae sparse or absent, tubercles sparse to numerous, pseudocyphellae on tubercles, punctiform on plane cortex, isidia produced on cortex and from pseudocyphellae, soralia absent, or sparsely and rarely from pseudocyphellae. Cortex glossy, glaucous-greenish to olivaceous with red pigment deposited in cortex. Apothecia not seen.
Chemistry: Medulla K+ yellow→orange or red; containing usnic, salazinic and norstictic acids.
Substrate
Corticolous, rarely saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (2 January 2022). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (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.