Diploschistes gypsaceus
Family
Graphidaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous habit (basic rocks); a whitish, pruinose thallus; uniseriate, 4-spored asci; brown muriform ascospores, 25–40 × 10–17 μm; and lecanoric acid in the medulla.
Distribution
North Island: Wellington (NW Ruahine Ranges). South Island: Nelson (Mt Owen Range). Also found in Canterbury (Castle Hill) in 2012 (Allison Knight, pers. comm.).
Known also from Iceland, Great Britain, Europe, the Azores, Scandinavia, North and South America (Colombia, Venezuela), India and Nepal, and Australia.
Habitat
On limestone and marble. Widespread in Mediterranean climates on calcareous rocks in somewhat shaded and damp sites.
Detailed description
Thallus crustose, uniform, cracked to areolate, areolae 0.8–2 mm diam. Upper surface matt, grey to chalky white, densely pruinose. Apothecia urceolate, 2–5 mm diam. Proper exciple blackish, to 65 μm thick. Hymenium 120–190 μm tall, colourless. Asci subclavate to cylindrical, 90–130 × 20–30 μm, 4-spored. Ascospores brown, muriform, broadly ellipsoidal, 25–40 × 10–17 μm, 4–7 transverse septa, 1–2 longitudinal septa per transverse segment. Pycnidia not seen.
Chemistry: K−, C+ red, Pd−, UV−; containing lecanoric acid.
Substrate
Saxicolous (limestone)
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (14 December 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.