Pseudocyphellaria faveolata
Synonyms
Crocodia cellulifera, Diphanosticta cellulifera, Lobaria billardierei var. cellulifera, Pseudocyphellaria cellulifera, Pseudocyphellaria condensata, Sticta billardierei var. cellulifera, Sticta cellulifera, Sticta condensata, Sticta elatior, Sticta fossulata var. cellulifera, Sticta faveolata, Sticta foveolata var. cellulifera, Sticta lorifera
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 linear-elongate, narrow to broad lobes that are dichotomously to irregularly branched and with divergent, blunt or acute apices; entire, thickened margins with prominent, raised, verruciform white pseudocyphellae; a coriaceous, waxy, reticulate-faveolate upper surface without isidia, maculae, phyllidia, pseudocyphellae or soredia; a white medulla; a green photobiont; a dark-brown to black lower surface with scattered white or creamish pseudocyphellae; marginal apothecia with a dark red-brown to black disc that is white-pruinose at first; a dark grey-brown epithecium turning vinous-purple in K; and a complex chemistry of depsides, hopane triterpenoids and depsidones, with physciosporin as a characteristic compound.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Puketi Forest) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Southland. Stewart Island: (North coast to Port Pegasus). Snares Islands, Auckland Islands. Campbell Island. Throughout.
Also known from Australia (southern Victoria and Tasmania) and from southern South America.
Habitat
Widespread and common occupying many habitat niches from windswept coastal scrub, lowland coastal forest, beech forest, mixed beech-podocarp forest, subalpine scrub close to or above treeline, to successional vegetation in disturbed sites. It is common on both bark and twigs, being especially well developed in open forest habitats (close to margins of standing forest) in high-rainfall areas, and is more commonly collected from southern and western localities. It is a moderately photophilous species and does not tolerate deep shade. It appears to be an obligate epiphyte and is not known from rocks and soil, although it will attach to ferns.
Detailed description
Thallus ± orbicular to spreading, often forming extensive, entangled clones, loosely attached, to 25 cm diam., or larger. Lobes very variable ± rounded, irregular or linear-laciniate and ± subdichotomously branched, margins entire, often with raised, verruciform, white pseudocyphellae, apices blunt, notched or furcate, often complex-imbricate centrally, ± discrete at margins. Upper surface bright lettuce-green, olive-green to greenish- or yellowish-brown, sometimes superficially blackened, distinctly and regularly reticulate-faveolate, smooth, waxy, without soredia, isidia, phyllidia or pseudocyphellae. Photobiont green. Medulla white. Lower surface bullate, ridged, with a narrow, glabrous marginal zone at apices, ± densely and uniformly tomentose to margins in older lobes, tomentum felted, brown or black, rarely pale buff or whitish. Pseudocyphellae verruciform, raised above tomentum, with a conspicuous, inflated, smooth, fawn or buff, waxy margin, decorticate area flat, small, white or occasionally yellowish. Apothecia marginal and laminal, most commonly developed towards lobe apices, 2-5 mm diam., disc matt, black or dark reddish-brown, concave to convex, often white-pruinose when young, margins pale, whitish or greyish, prominent, inflexed at first, becoming denticulate and excluded with age, thalline exciple pale to red-brown, minutely verrucose-areolate, to white- or brown-tomentose. Ascospores brown, polaribilocular, fusiform-ellipsoid, (20-) 24-33 × 10-14 µm.
Chemistry: Methyl virensate, physciosporin, hopane-6α,7β,22-triol, stictic, norstictic (tr.), cryptostictic and constictic acids.
Similar taxa
It is distinguished from P. carpoloma which has yellow pseudocyphellae and a different chemistry, from P. rufovirescens which has a glabrous lower surface, white, fleck-like pseudocyphellae and red-brown apothecia and a differing chemistry and from P. billardieri by differences in lobe margins (in P. billardieri these are smooth and never with pseudocyphellae) apothecia (red-brown to black but never pruinose in P. billardieri) morphology of the pseudocyphellae and texture of the tomentum. The chemistry of P. billardieri also differs from P. faveolata.
Substrate
Corticolous
The great variation in lobe morphology shown by P. faveolata, (possibly a response to differing ecological conditions, although there is no corresponding chemical variation) has resulted in an extensive synonymy with the taxa Sticta cellulifera Hook.f. & Taylor, S. impressa J.D. Hook. et Taylor, S. physcopspora Nyl., S. lorifera Stirton and Sticta elatior Stirt. being described between 1844 and 1900 for this polymorphic species. An excellent drawing (by Walter Fitch) of the round-lobed form (as Sticta faveolata var. cellulifera Church. Bab.) showing the deep faveolation, marginal, verruciform pseudocyphellae and the characteristic morphology of the pseudocyphellae of the lower surface with thick tomentum to margins, is given in Babington (loc. cit., pl. CXXIV).
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (2 February 2022). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (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.