Aptrootia elatior
Synonyms
Anthracothecium monosporum Müll.Arg., Ascidium elatius Stirt., Ascidium melanosporum C.Knight, Laurera elatior (Stirt.) D.J.Galloway, Polyblastiopsis monosporum (Müll.Arg.) Upreti & Ajay Singh
Family
Trypetheliaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the olive-greenish to fawnish, nodular-papillate thallus; perithecia in prominent, hemispherical, monocarpic thalline verrucae; and large, dark red-brown, densely muriform ascospores, 230–330 × 60–90 μm, that are often visible as tiny black rods on the outside of the thallus near the perithecia (×10 lens).
Distribution
North Island: Auckland (Waitakere Ranges) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson, Maruia Valley, Calf Paddock near Springs Junction, Otago (Mt Cargill). Chatham Islands: Rekohu / Wharekauri / Chatham Island.
Still very much under-collected in New Zealand. Probably more widely distributed.
Known also in Australia (McCarthy & Kantvilas 1993; McCarthy 2003, 2006).
Habitat
On bark of forest trees, Dacrydium cupressinum, Dysoxylum spectabile, Myrsine australis, Fuscospora fusca, F. solandri, Rhopalostylis sapida and rarely on coastal rocks (Waitakere Ranges; Bartlett 1988: 12).
Detailed description
Thallus crustose, spreading in irregular patches, 2-8(-10) cm diam., pale olive greenish, yellowish-fawn, pale yellow or grey-yellow to glaucous brown, nodular-papillate in humps or concrescent lumps, 0.3-1.2 mm diam., ± glebose, minutely white-papillate, thick, shining or dull. Perithecia often densely crowded in prominent hemispherical thalline verrucae, monocarpic, 0.4-1.5 mm diam., apical pore black, indented to 0.2 or 0.3 mm diam. Excipulum carbonised, red-brown. Paraphyses colourless, branched-reticulate. Ascospores very large 1, occasionally 2 per ascus, encased inside a gelatinous sac which is extruded with the ascospores, which becomes dark red-brown with age, densely muriform, wall of two distinct layers, 230-330 mm × 60-90 µm.
Similar taxa
The ascospores darken in the ascus, unlike many colourless ascospores of Trypetheliaceae and lichens that only become brown after their release from perithecia (Harris 1986). The Tasmanian terricolous species Laurera robusta McCarthy & Kantvilas, has large, dark-brown, muriform ascospores that darken in the ascus before release (McCarthy & Kantvilas 1993).
Substrate
Corticolous
Etymology
aptrootia: Named after Dutch lichenologist and mycologist André Aptroot
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (29 November 2023). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985, 2007).
References and further reading
Bartlett J.K. 1988: Lichens of the Waitakere Range. Auckland Botanical Society Bulletin 17: 1-29.
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.
Harris R.C. 1986 [“1984”]: The family Trypetheliaceae (Loculoascomycetes: lichenized Melanommatales) in Amazonian Brazil. Acta Amazonica, Supplement 14: 55-80.
McCarthy P.M. 2003c: 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
McCarthy P.M. (ed.) 2009: Flora of Australia. Vol. 57 Lichens 5. ABRS, Canberra.
McCarthy P.M. and Kantvilas G. 1993: Laurera robusta (Trypetheliaceae), a new alpine lichen from Tasmania. Lichenologist 25: 51–55.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: Hutchison, M. (Year at time of access): Aptrootia elatior Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/aptrootia-elatior/ (Date website was queried)