Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Taranaki: Mt Egmont [Taranaki], behind Wilkies Pools, Dawson Falls, on dead Pseudopanax sinclairii, 1400 m, 19.i.1934, L.M. Cranwell ZA 205 – W. Isotype – CHR 160186.

Description : Thallus adnate to loosely adnate, firm, whitish or pale greenish grey, 6–15 cm diam. Lobes sublinear, often little branched, subdivaricate, browning at apices, 1–4 mm wide. Upper surface shining, continuous or transversely cracked with age, pseudocyphellate, without isidia or soredia. Pseudocyphellae forming an irregular but nearly continuous rim around lobe margins, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, also laminal and effigurate, 0.2–0.8 mm long, discrete, fissuring with age. Lower surface black, moderately to densely rhizinate. Rhizines simple to furcate to squarrosely branched, 1–2 mm long, often projecting as a mat beyond lobe margins. Apothecia common, pedicellate, cupuliform, splitting radially with age, to 20 mm diam.; disc pale-tan to brown-black; exciple rugose, effigurate-pseudocyphellate. Hymenium 80–90 μm tall. Ascospores 17–21 × 10–15 μm; epispore to 2 μm thick. Pycnidia common, 90–110 μm diam. Conidia cylindrical, bacillar, 5.5–6 μm long.

Chemistry : Thallus K+ yellow; medulla K− or + yellow, C−, Pd+ orange-red; containing atranorin, chloroatranorin, and protocetraric acid or echinocarpic acid (and associated unidentified compounds) – or protocetraric and echinocarpic acids together in nearly equal concentration (Hale 1987: 21). Unknown #27, which is typical of the P. testacea group, does not occur in P. crambidiocarpa.

N: South Auckland (Rotorua), Taranaki (Mt Taranaki), Gisborne (Lake Waikaremoana), Wellington (Tongariro National Park). S: Canterbury (Lewis Pass, Arthur's Pass, Banks Peninsula, Mt Cook National Park), Otago (Dunedin, Catlins), Southland (Tuatapere, Doubtful Sound). In beech forest, forest remnants or subalpine scrub (Dracophyllum, Nothofagus, Pseudopanax), near s.l. in southern part of its range, elsewhere 600–1300 m. Most common in North I. where it is abundantly developed.

Endemic

Illustrations : Galloway & Elix (1983: 418, fig. 25); Hale (1987: 4, fig. 2C; 20, fig. 13C).

Exsiccati : Elix (1986: No. 112).

Parmelia crambidiocarpa is characterised by: the loosely adnate, rather large thallus; narrow, sublinear lobes; marginal and laminal pseudocyphellae fissuring with age; rhizines forming a dense mat below and projecting out from the lobe margins; strongly pedicellate, urceolate apothecia; large ascospores, 15–21 × 9–12 μm and a 2-μm-thick perispore; and a chemistry comprising atranorin, chloroatranorin and (1) protocetraric acid; or (2) protocetraric and echinocarpic acids; or (3) echinocarpic acid and associated unidentified compounds.