Buellia cranwelliae
Family
Caliciaceae
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: RR, S?O, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous habit (coastal rocks); the grey-white, areolate thallus; innate to sessile, scattered, black apothecia; a brown-black hypothecium; and biseriate, brown, ellipsoidal to oval or fabiform ascospores, 11–13 × 5–6 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Hokianga, Anawhata), Auckland (Rangitoto Island). South Island: Canterbury (Banks Peninsula).
Norfolk Island (Elix 2016).
Habitat
On coastal rocks
Detailed description
Thallus white or grey-white irregularly rimose to areolate-cracked, areolae angular, convex or ± plane, 0.3-1.0 mm diam., separated by deep cracks, surface matt, roughened, areolae becoming ± confluent and forming a subverrucose crust, in patches 0.5-1.5 cm diam., prothallus marginal, indistinct, saxicolous. Apothecia innate to sessile, scattered, between or at margins of areolae, solitary to 1-3-confluent, rounded to deformed through mutual pressure, 0.3 mm diam., disc plane, black, epruinose, margin very thin, entire, persistent, concolorous with disc. Hypothecium brown-black. Ascospores biseriate, brown, ellipsoid or oval to ± fabiform, apices rounded, 11-13 × 5-6 µm.
Substrate
Saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (4 March 2024). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Elix J.A. 2016: New species and new records of buellioid lichens from islands of the South Pacific Ocean. Telopea 19: 1-10.
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.