Brigantiaea fuscolutea
Family
Brigantiaeaceae
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
Easily recognised by the pale whitish encrusting thallus and the mustard-yellow, scattered, large, subpedicellate apothecia often with a dense covering of anthraquinone crystals on the margins and disc.
Distribution
North Island: Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi). South Island: Nelson (Fenella Hut Cobb Valley, Dun Saddle), Canterbury (Craigieburn Ra.), Otago (Old Woman Ra., Old Man Ra.), Southland (Longwood Ra.). Stewart Island.
Bipolar. Known also from Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faeroes, Jan Mayen, Iceland, North and South America, Asia and South Georgia.
Habitat
In subalpine grasslands and fellfield where it encrusts bryophytes, decumbent vegetation or occasionally bare soil.
Detailed description
Thallus thin, granular-verrucose, matt or shining, white or grey-white to pale yellowish-grey, spreading, to 8 cm diam., muscicolous or terricolous. Apothecia to 4 mm diam., sessile to subpedicellate, disc concave at first, becoming plane or subconvex, mustard-yellow to orange or yellow-brown, margins persistent, rather thick, entire to irregularly crenate, inflexed, stipe near the base brownish and without anthraquinone crystals. Hypothecium thick, colourless, 100-150 µm tall. Ascospores 1 per ascus, colourless, 8-105(-120) × 25-45(-55) µm muriform, ellipsoid or oblong.
Chemistry: Atranorin, chloratranorin, parietin.
Specimens of B. fuscolutea are sometimes parasitised by the lichenicolous fungus Dactylopsora frigida.
Similar taxa
Brigantiaea fuscolutea may be confused with sterile Teramelas confusus that has closely similar papillate, white spreading encrusting thalli, but when fertile, the two taxa that are often sympatric are readily separable, as T. confusus has shiny coal-black apothecia.
Substrate
Terricolous (ground).
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (3 March 2021). 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.