Teloschistes sieberianus
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: DP, SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the caespitose thallus; the flattened, corticate, dorsiventral lobes, sparingly branched to entangled; the abundant marginal, often white-tipped or hyaline cilia (usually also laminal); laminal and marginal, granular to isidia-like structures; the absence of soredia; sessile to pedicellate apothecia, without marginal cilia, but with short cilia present on thalline exciple below disc.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Warkworth), Auckland (Auckland City), South Auckland (Awhitu, Thames, Huntly), Waikato (Pureora). South Island: Nelson (Golden Bay), West Coast (Karamea).
Habitat
On kauri (Agathis australis) leaves, twigs of Plagianthus, and on Crataegus*. Associating with Heterodermia speciosa, Parmotrema reticulatum and Ramalina celastri. Still rather poorly known and collected in New Zealand.
Also in Australia.
Detailed description
Thallus loosely to closely attached, forming ±elevated, caespitose clumps, 1–3(–5) cm diam. Lobes flattened, dorsiventral, 1–5 mm long, 0.3–0.8 mm wide, sparingly branched to entangled, flat to convex, pale-yellow to orange-red above, white below, corticate on both upper and lower surfaces; with abundant marginal, and occasionally also laminal cilia to 1.5 mm long, concolorous with thallus. Minute granular to isidia-like structures occasionally present at margins and on upper surface. Soredia absent. Apothecia common, sessile to distinctly pedicellate, 0.5–2.5(–5) mm diam., marginal cilia rare or absent, but with occasional, scattered, short cilia on thalline exciple below disc. Ascospores 12–16 × 7–9 μm. Pycnidia large, protruding. Conidia bifusiform.
Chemistry: Chemosyndrome A with parietin (major), emodin, parietinic acid, fallacinal, teloschistin and erythroglaucin.
Similar taxa
Lobes are less flattened than in T. spinosus and T. xanthorioides, and are often verrucose (×10 lens). Pycnidia are large and protruding, with bifusiform conidia. It is most similar to T. xanthoriodes, but this species does not have cilia on the upper surface, and it also has smaller, less protruding pycnidia, and more distinctly pedicellate apothecia.
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (17 June 2021). Information in the Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa 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.