Teloschistes fasciculatus
Family
Teloschistaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the saxicolous (subalpine to high-alpine) habit; thalli which form distinctive, pulvinate clumps 0.5–10(–12) cm diam. composed of prostrate to ±erect, narrow (0.2–1 mm) lobes which are flattened, laterally compressed to ±subterete to terete, corticate on both surfaces, somewhat gnarled and striate to ±smooth, tapering to sharp, blunt, ragged or spinulose apices. Lobes have marginal and terminal cilia, but only on the lower surface (but as the thallus often twists and turns, it is often difficult to determine which exactly is the lower surface!), and ±prominent marginal or submarginal, sessile or somewhat knobbly and protruding, to excavate soralia (±closely to widely scattered in terete branches) containing orange to yellow-green blastidious soredia. Juvenile thalli usually have blastidia (budding of small thallus fragments). It shows variation in size of hummocks; in the morphology of the lobes which can be terete (mature) to flattened (juvenile); in the size and density of both soralia and rhizines (both vary from sparse and widely scattered, to ±numerous); and in the colour of the lobes, which are generally whitish to pale-yellow at base to mustard-yellow to orange or orange-red at apices, with specimens from sheltered sites being pale-yellowish while specimens from exposed high-light habitats are orange-red.
Distribution
South Island: Nelson (Dun Mountain), Marlborough (Molesworth), Canterbury (Mt St Patrick, Cass, Craigieburn Range, Rocky Peak Banks Peninsula, Mistake Peak Godley Valley, Cass River, Tekapo, Mt Peel, Ben Ohau Range), Otago (Matukituki Valley, Mt Roy, The Remarkables, Old Man Range, Alexandra, Oturehua, Poolburn Reservoir, Mt Ida, Umbrella Mountains, Garvie Mountains, Rock & Pillar Range, Maungatua), Southland (Eyre Mountains, Symmetry Peaks, Borland Saddle).
Habitat
A subalpine to high-alpine species on soil, among mosses and other lichens in crevices of rock outcrops, on both sunny and sheltered ledges of schist tors in Central Otago, and scrambling among branches of Melicytus alpinus at the base of rock outcrops in alpine grasslands, 800-2200 m, E of the Main Divide. One of the most conspicuous and colourful of alpine lichens.
Also known from Australia where it is recorded from New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.
Detailed description
Thallus fruticose, forming pulvinate clumps, 1-4 cm diam., and to 1 cm tall, saxicolous or muscicolous. Lobes erect, interlaced, narrow, 3-10 mm long and 0.15-0.5 mm wide, yellow-orange to orange-red, sparingly branched, smooth and whitish beneath except in upper portions, flat or canaliculate above, sparingly fibrillose on margins, fibrils concolorous with thallus, 0.5-1 mm long, surface matt, ± striate or minutely scabrid, reddish-pruinose, margins knobbly or glomerulate, granular-sorediate. Soredia concolorous with thallus in minute elliptical soralia or sometimes with a few farinose yellow-soredia present also. Apothecia not seen.
Substrate
Saxicolous, terricolous
Etymology
fasciculatus: Little bundles bearer
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa A.S. Hutchison (May 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features sections sourced 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 pp.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.