Badimiella pteridophila
Family
Pilocarpaceae
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: DP, RR, SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the foliicolous habit; the small, whitish, half-moon-shaped campylidia with marginal cilia (×10 lens); its 1-septate campylidioconidia; and its brownish, Fellhanera-like apothecia.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Waima), South Auckland (Hunua Ra., Coromandel Peninsula) to Wellington (Rimutaka Ra.). South Island: Nelson to Southland, both E and W of the Main Divide.
Known also from southern Victoria, eastern New South Wales and Tasmania where it appears to be the most common foliicolous lichen and recently recorded from Argentina.
Habitat
Widely distributed in lowland forest, in cool, humid, rather low-light habitats, on fern fronds (Adiantum, Asplenium, Blechnum, Hymenophyllum, Lastreopsis, Microsorum, Polystichum, Pteridium), leaves of Lycopodium volubile and on leaves of podocarps (Dacrycarpus, Podocarpus) and flowering plants (Freycinetia banksii, Metrosideros, Pseudopanax crassifolius, Pseudowintera, Rhopalostylis).
Detailed description
Thallus epiphyllous, continuous, grey-green, thin to ±inconspicuous. Apothecia orbicular, 0.25–0.3 mm diam., 0.1 mm tall, disc plane, pale-brown to brownish yellow, epruinose, margin not raised. Hymenium 45–50 μm tall, colourless. Asci numerous, wall moderately thick (1–2 μm), tholate. Ascospores 8 per ascus but typically only 4–6 develop, 18–20 × 4.5–5 μm. Campylidia membranaceous, whitish hyaline, to 0.4 mm wide and 0.2–0.3 mm high, paraplectenchymatous, at the base and close to the apex with dense islands of birefringent crystals (dissolving in K). Margins of concave fertile surface covered with anticlinally arranged hydrophobic hyphae forming a conidiogenous layer. Coniodiophores and conidiogenous cells forming a regularly arranged layer without any paraphyses. Conidiogenous cells rectangular, 6–8 × 2 μm, producing 1–3 conidia at or near their apices by sympodial proliferation. Conidia colourless, ellipsoidal to bacillar, 8–11 × 2.5–3 μm.
Chemistry: TLC−, all reactions negative.
Substrate
Leaves (Foliicolous)
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (5 July 2021). Information in the Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa 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.