Sticta caliginosa
Family
Peltigeraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous (rarely saxicolous) habit; the distinctly stalked, palmate thallus; a cyanobacterial photobiont; the ragged, isidiate-phyllidiate margins; the dark, felted tomentum and large white cyphellae on the lower surface.
Distribution
North Island: Northland to Wellington. South Island: Nelson to Fiordland. Still poorly known and collected in New Zealand.
Habitat
Among mosses on trunks and large branches of forest trees and shrubs (Coprosma, Lophozonia menziesii, Fuscospora cliffortioides, Pterophylla racemosa) or occasionally on rocks, in humid, rather low-light habitats, s.l. to 1400 m. Commonly infected with species of the lichenicolous fungus Plectocarpon sticticola (q.v.).
Detailed description
Thallus 2–10(–15) cm tall, ± erect to decumbent-straggling, fragile, easily shattered when dry, stalked, attached to substrate by a root-like holdfast, stalk flattened to ± terete in lower part, ± canaliculate above, 1–3 mm diam and 3–20 mm tall, expanded above into a dissected, frond-like lobe. Lobes narrow, ± laciniate 2–4 mm wide, to expanded, 10–15 mm wide, margins crenate- incised or ragged or irregular, ± thickened, ± densely isidiate. Isidia minute, dark brown or greyish-blue, shining, style-forming, ± terete, delicate at first, densely clustered, becoming coralloid-lobulate and eventually ± phyllidiate, dorsiventral with age, primarily marginal, also developing on lamina and thallus fissures and rents, eventually becoming confluent in a diffract crust. Upper surface dark greyish-blue to black or dark red-brown when wet, dull brownish-grey when dry, often white-maculate (×10 lens) in parts, smooth, undulate to ± shallowly faveolate in parts, often cracked, torn or ± fenestrate, stalk dark brown-black. Lower surface dark brown, occasionally pale buff near margins, tomentose, tomentum uniform, thick, brown. Cyphellae white, round to irregular, rather sparse, sunk in tomentum, 0.1–1.8 mm diam. Apothecia not seen.
Similar taxa
It can be compared with the following palaeotropical taxa; Sticta brevipes (Mull.Arg.) Zahlbr. (smaller, more rounded, flabellate lobes which are markedly thickened and down-rolled at their apices); S. cyphellulata (Mull.Arg.) Hue (narrower, smaller, irregularly to subdichotomously branching lobes without phyllidia, a pale often glabrus lower surface with small, thelotremoid cyphellae); S. duplolimbata (Hue) Vain. (a smaller more irregular thallus with prominent, long, black marginal cilia projecting from among the isidia); and S. marginifera Mont. (smaller lobes with a pale, often glabrous lower surface and small, thelotremoid cyphellae, and prominent, stalked, marginal lobules).
Substrate
Corticolous (rarely saxicolous)
Etymology
sticta: spotted, dappled
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (5 August 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) and Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 1985: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens. Wellington: PD Hasselberg, Government Printer. 662 p.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 p.