Peltigera neckeri
Family
Peltigeraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the terricolous/muscicolous habit; the presence of white, glistening, irregular patches of laminal pruina (×10 lens) that give thalli a pale celadon-green colour when wet.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Waipoua Forest, Great Barrier Island), Auckland (Anawhata), South Auckland (Te Aroha, Pio Pio), Gisborne (Lake Waikaremoana), Wellington (Ohakune, Tararua Ranges). South Island: Canterbury (Arthur’s Pass. Mt Cook), Westland (Moeraki, Lichen Creek, Waiatoto Valley), Otago (Matukituki Valley, Pigeon I. Lake Wakatipu, Swampy Summit, Maungatua, Blue Mountains), Southland (Milford Sound, Bluecliffs). Stewart Island: (Moturau Moana, Wilson Bay).
Bipolar. Known also from temperate and boreal regions of North America, Europe and Asia.
Habitat
On sandy soil, among mosses in humid sites, often at streamsides or riverbanks (where it is occasionally ±inundated), or alongside shaded paths and on damp, mossy roadside banks.
Detailed description
Thallus in rosettes to irregularly spreading, 2–6(–8) cm diam. Lobes irregular, 0.5–1.5 cm wide, 1–3(–4) cm long. Margins irregularly scalloped or incised, slightly ascending, suffused red-brown, sometimes white-pruinose, sometimes ragged–eroded and regenerating small, irregular lobules or phyllidia. Upper surface celadon-green to steel-grey when wet, pale greyish green to ±olivaceous, tinged red-brownish when dry, matt or shining, ±maculate at margins and apices (×10 lens), with small to large patches of glistening, transparent to white pruina (×10 lens) developing mainly centrally. Lower surface pale, tomentose between veins. Veins, 0.5–1 mm wide, flat to ±raised, conspicuous at margins, anastomosing, pale-buff (at margins) to dark-brown or black centrally or ±uniformly black from margins to centre; interstices oval or lenticular, white or pale-buff. Rhizines fasciculate, dark-brown to black, 2–4(–6) mm long, rather sparse at margins, more common centrally. Apothecia erect, saddle-shaped to ±cylindrical or finger-like, 4–8 mm long, on short (3–5 mm), involute marginal lobes; disc dark red-brown to brown-black, epruinose; margins very thin, pale, often obscured by inrolled disc, dark-brown-tomentose below. Ascospores 3–7-septate, elongate–fusiform, colourless, (35–)45–62(–70) × 2.5–5 μm.
Chemistry: Tenuiorin, methyl gyrophorate, gyrophoric acid, dolichorrhizin, zeorin and several unidentified triterpenoids.
Similar taxa
The only other species having white pruina on the lobes is P. tereziana, but that is much less densely pruinose, the pruina being mainly confined to the lobe margins and marginal phyllidia, it also has horizontal, round apothecia that are quite different to the erect, saddle-shaped to ±cylindrical apothecia of P. neckeri .
Substrate
Terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (29 August 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.