Usnea baileyi
Synonyms
Eumitria baileyi
Family
Parmeliaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; terete branches; fragile, cylindrical isidia that are easily dislodged, leaving pseudocyphellae; a dense medulla with a pigmented layer around the hollow, tubular axis; and a chemistry of eumitrins and depsidones (especially norstictic acid).
Distribution
North Island: Northland, Auckland, Coromandel.
Pantropical. Known also from Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America, East Africa, India, China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and the Pacific.
Habitat
In open forest in canopy branches, occasionally also on fenceposts.
Detailed description
Thallus erect to subpendulous, 5–15(–20) cm long. Holdfast black or occasionally pale to concolorous with thallus. Branches terete to somewhat ridged, 1–1.5 mm diam., pale-grey to dark greenish grey, branching subdichotomous to irregular; apices attenuate, straight or curved. Fibrils sparse to dense on main branches, to 5 mm long. Isidia always present, sparse to dense, solitary or clustered, cylindrical, easily eroded or dislodged, leaving pseudocyphellae. Pseudocyphellae scattered, punctiform or raised. Soralia absent. Medulla dense. Axis hollow, or with a loose web of hyphae, with a pigmented layer (red, pink, ochraceous-yellow, rusty or chocolate-brown) around axis.
Chemistry: Medulla K+ red (often obscured by pigment); containing usnic acid, eumitrin A, ±eumitrin B, norstictic acid (major), ±salazinic acid (minor), connorstictic acid (tr.), galbinic acid (tr.), and hyposalazinic acid (tr.).
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (2 August 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.