Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: Tasmania. Lake Hartz, 690 m. 29. iii. 1963. P.W. James 2095, BM!

Thallus lobes broad, rounded, rather fragile, thin, undulate, margins entire, rounded, very slightly thickened. Surface pale buff-green or yellowish- or creamish-fawn, never suffused reddish, roughened, minutely but distinctly verrucose-areolate (×10 lens) on one side and ± smooth on the other, often crowded together in dense clumps. Chemistry: Medulla K-, C-, Pd-. TLC nil.

S: Nelson (Denniston Plateau), southwards and west of the Main Divide to Fiordland (Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound) and eastwards into the Central Otago mountains (Pisa Ra., Old Man Ra.). On damp, alpine soils, often inundated, amongst mosses.

Australasian (also in South Africa)

S. foliacea is similar to S. fragilis and is often sympatric with it in some habitats, but has thicker lobes, a roughened surface, and is never suffused-reddish. It occurs in rock crevices, and on soils subject to periodic inundation, often growing intermixed with species of Andreaea and S. fragilis.