Thamnolia vermicularis var. vermicularis

Ecological notes

The UV− chemodeme is more common in the Southern Hemisphere than it is in the Northern Hemisphere (Satô 1965: 324). In New Zealand it has an altitudinal range from 287 m (Conroy’s Gully near Alexandra) to 3000 m (Mt Aspiring) and is most richly developed in the mountains of eastern South Island, from the Torlesse Range to the Blue Mountains. In this latter locality, exceptionally well-developed thalli occur reaching 12–15 cm in length. The UV+ chemodeme is much rarer in New Zealand (Satô 1965: 324) ranging from the St Arnaud Ranges to Mt Anglem on Stewart Island. This chemodeme is much more common in the Northern Hemisphere than it is in the Southern Hemisphere (Satô 1965), though in arctic North America both chemodemes appear to be equally distributed (Thomson 1984; Brodo et al. 2001).