Sticta sublimbata
Synonyms
Stictina weigelii var. sublimbata
Family
Lobariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous/muscicolous habit; a white medulla, a cyanobacterial photobiont, and rather thick, wrinkled-undulate, coriaceous lobes that are slightly glossy in parts and reminiscent of species of Peltigera. It has distinctive linear soralia with grey-brown, granular soredia derived from minute, granular-coralloid isidia, and a thick, dark-brown to black, shaggy tomentum on the lower surface, with scattered, white cyphellae deeply sunk in the tomentum.
Distribution
North Island: South Auckland (Mangaotaki River, Pio Pio), Wellington (Tongariro National Park). South Island: Canterbury (Lewis Pass, Nina Valley, Dog Stream, Hanmer). Still rather poorly collected and understood in New Zealand.
Also in southern South America, East and South Africa, Australia, and Panama.
Habitat
Among moss on riverine shrubs in deep shade.
Detailed description
Thallus loosely attached, ± orbicular to irregular, 2-8 cm diam., corticolous. Lobes rounded, 3-10 mm wide, undulate, ± imbricate centrally, margins free, thickened, crisped, ± ascending, entire or with eroding, linear soralia on lower surface. Upper surface dark grey-blue or blackish, minutely white-maculate (×10 lens) or with irregular white or brownish, algal-free patches, greyish brown when dry, matt, shining, rather coriaceous. Soredia bluish-grey, coarse, granular, in linear soralia often eroding back from margins of lower surface. Medulla white. Photobiont blue-green. Lower surface pale brown at margins, dark brown or black towards centre, ± uniformly thick-tomentose to margins. Cyphellae conspicuous but rather few, scattered, round to irregular, sunk in tomentum, 0.1-2.0 mm diam., white, with a conspicuous, pale, raised rim. Apothecia not seen.
Similar taxa
It is distinguished from Sticta limbata by its thicker, more coriaceous, rather variable lobes, which are never broadly monophyllous, in having sorediate isidia instead of primary soralia and the lack of laminal soredia.
Substrate
Moss, trees
Etymology
sticta: spotted, dappled
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (3 March 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat and Features 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.