Coenogonium luteum
Common name
Orange dimple lichen
Synonyms
Baeomyces pertenuis, Biatorinopsis pallidula, Catillaria perpulchra, Dimerella lutea, Lecidea familiaris, Lecidea planella, Lichen luteus
Family
Coenogoniaceae
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
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the yellowish-green to dark olive-green, continuous thallus (on bark or often overgrowing bryophytes or tree-fern brush); the scattered, bright orange-yellow apothecia (2–4 mm diam.) with paler and often flexuose margins; a hymenium 65–70 μm tall; and fusiform-ellipsoidal ascospores, 6–12(–14) × 2–4 μm.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Te Huka, Karikari Mangonui, Waipoua Forest, Taranga Island, Little Barrier Island, Great Barrier Island, Mt Auckland), Auckland (Huapai, Waitakere Ranges, Piha), South Auckland (Clevedon, Mt William) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson (Lake Rotoiti), Marlborough (d’Urville Island) to Southland. Stewart Island.
Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America, South Africa and Australia
Habitat
Throughout, very widespread in damp, humid, low-light habitats on bark or twigs or overgrowing bryophytes. It is especially characteristic of the root mass of tree ferns.
Detailed description
Thallus thin, spreading to 8 cm diam., pale yellowish-green to dark olive-green in shaded situations, varnish-like, ± continuous or cracked-areolate or wanting. Apothecia common and conspicuous, sessile, orbicular, disc plane, orange, shallowly concave at first becoming convex with age, margins pale flesh-coloured, prominent, entire or flexuose, occasionally with a faint pale pruina in older fruits. Ascospores fusiform-ellipsoid, 6-12(-14) × 2-4 µm.
Substrate
Corticolous (bark, twigs, tree ferns), muscicolous
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.