Teloschistes spinosus
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 saxicolous habit; small, straggling thalli, 0.5–1.5(–2) cm diam.; narrow, subdichotomously branching lobes with prominent, thick laminal and marginal cilia scattered to dense on upper surface, and widely scattered rhizines below; minute, marginal and more rarely laminal, soralia commonly present (often dense and giving thalli a granular appearance), sometimes becoming erose-excavate; soredia yellow-orange, farinose to slightly granular, but smaller than in T. fasciculatus. Apothecia are not known in New Zealand collections.
Distribution
North Island: Wellington (Cape Palliser). South Island: Marlborough (Chetwode Islands, Fairhall Valley), Otago (Kurow, Benmore Dam, Alexandra). Recently found on the West Coast near Harihari (Glenny 2021).
Still very poorly known and collected in New Zealand.
Also known in Australia (where it is also corticolous), from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
Habitat
Both coastal and inland, on rocks in dry localities. Glenny (2021) recorded it as “epiphyte on Carmichaelia australis in Hoheria glabra / Chionochloa pallens treeland on hillslope.”
Detailed description
Thallus small, straggling decumbent, 0.5–1.5(–2) cm diam., occasionally forming small cushions. Lobes small, narrow, subdichotomously branching, 0.2–0.8 mm wide, ±flattened, pale whitish below, yellow to orange-red above, with laminal and marginal cilia scattered to densely developed on the upper surface, and occasional and widely scattered rhizines on the lower surface. Soralia present, minute, granular to nodular, often dense and giving thalli a granular appearance, sometimes becoming erose-excavate; soredia farinose to slightly granular, yellow-orange. Apothecia not seen. Pycnidia rare, large and protruding. Conidia bacillar.
Chemistry: Chemosyndrome A; with parietin (major), emodin, parietinic acid, fallacinal, teloschistin and erythroglaucin.
Similar taxa
Teloschistes spinosus is similar to T. sieberianus (q.v.), but this latter species has different conidia, is never sorediate, and usually has more decumbent lobes and thinner cilia that are often white-tipped. Pycnidia are large and protruding (but rare in New Zealand collections), with straight (bacillar) conidia, which differ from those of all other New Zealand Teloschistes species (in T. chrysophthalmus and some other foreign species of Teloschistes, conidia are bacillar to narrowly ellipsoidal). Soredia are smaller than in T. fasciculatus.
Substrate
Saxicolous, corticolous
Etymology
spinosus: Spiny
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (22 July 2023). 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.
Glenny D. 2021: iNaturalist observation. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/110119455. Date accessed: 22 July 2023.