Candelariella vitellina
Common name
Common goldspeck lichen
Synonyms
Candelariella neozelandica, Lichen vitellinus
Family
Candelariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Candelariella vitellina is very variable but is characterised by: scattered to contiguous, convex to spherical granules, or compacted into small, shortly lobulate clusters of often fertile, subsquamulose rosettes; the colour ranging from yellow to dull, deep-orange or brown-yellow; the numerous, congested apothecia; and multi-spored asci.
Distribution
North Island: Auckland to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Southland. Stewart Island.
Widespread in both hemispheres being known from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America, Asia, Japan, Australia, Chile, South Georgia, South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, Charcot Island, and Antarctica.
Habitat
Very widespread on siliceous and calcareous rocks, walls, bricks, decorticated wood (fenceposts, gates, painted railings etc.), footpaths, curbing, rusted iron railings, especially common in nutrient-enriched and dusty man-made and urban habitats, and on bird-perch rocks, often very abundant, coastal and inland. It is characteristic of moderately polluted and eutrophic habitats.
Detailed description
Thallus lemon-yellow to yolk-yellow, mustard to brown-yellow, ± olive-greenish in shade, dull, granular to verrucose-areolate, the granules to 0.2 mm broad but frequently flattened and forming masses to 5 mm broad, in groups, the colour very variable. Apothecia to 1.5 mm wide, often crowded, sessile, flat to subconvex, margins entire or becoming granular-sorediate or entirely disappearing, flexuose or crenulate. Ascospores numerous (12-30 per ascus), colourless, oblong to ellipsoid, slightly curved, apices rounded, 9-15 × 4.5-6.5 µm.
Chemistry: Thallus K−; containing calycin and pulvinic acid dilactone.
Substrate
Saxicolous, lignicolous (fenceposts, gates, railings), artificial surfaces (walls, bricks, footpaths, curbing, iron railings)
Etymology
vitellina: Yellow like an egg yolk
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (9 March 2022). 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.