Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lecanora rubelliana Ach, Lichenogr. universalis: 376 (1810).

=Caloplaca amylacea H.Magn., Sv. Bot. Tidksr. 37: 280 (1943).

=Caloplaca scarlatina Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss Kl. 104: 366 (1941).

Caloplaca amylacea. Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Cromwell, on rocks near railway station, i.1927, G. Einar & Greta Du Rietz – UPS.

Caloplaca scarlatina : Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Macrae's Hill near Dunedin, on schist rocks, J.S. Thomson T 2463 [V 196] – W. Isotypes – CHR 545172, OTA??

Description : Flora (1985: 63 – as Caloplaca amylacea). See also Wetmore & Kärnefelt (1999: 689).

Chemistry : Thallus K+ purple; containing parietin, emodin, teloschistin, fallacinal and xanthorin (Santesson 1970: 2156).

S: Marlborough (Goose Bay Kaikoura coast), Canterbury (Hurunui River, Sleepy Bay, Banks Peninsula, Ahuriri Bush Port Hills, Stew Point, Rangitata Valley), Otago (Ram Hill Lake Ohau, Avoca Station, Lake Ohau, above Benmore Dam, Timaru Creek, Lake Hawea, Damper Bay Lake Wanaka, Luggate, Dunstan Mts, Pisa Ra., Poolburn, Cromwell, Alexandra, Old Man Ra., Nevis Crossing, Mt Benger, Roxburgh, Teviot, Hyde, Sutton, Hammond's Hill near Merton, Waikouaiti River, Karitane, Blackhead, Saddle Hill). Scattered on basalt rocks of Banks Peninsula and the Otago coast, but widespread on schist rocks in Central Otago where it forms distinctive scarlet or orange-red patches on both horizontal and vertical surfaces amongst other lichens, e.g. Acarospora, Aspicilia, Candelariella vitellina, Lecanora dispersa, L. galactiniza, L. polytropa, Lecidella, Ramboldia petraeoides, Teloschistes velifer, Xanthoparmelia. Known in the Northern Hemisphere from the European Alps, the Mediterranean and North Africa, Ukraine, the eastern USA and Mexico (Poelt 1969; Ozenda & Clauzade 1970; Buschardt 1979; Nimis 1993; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Egea 1996; Kondratyuk et al. 1996b, 1998; Wetmore & Kärnefelt 1999; Scholz 2000; Hafellner & Türk 2001; Llimona & Hladun 2001; Nimis & Martellos 2003).

Bipolar

Illustrations : Wirth (1995b: 237); Wetmore & Kärnefelt (1999: 685, fig. 4).

Caloplaca rubelliana is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; the spreading [2–6(–10) cm diam.], indeterminate, areolate (the areolae separated by deep cracks), greyish to pale- ochraceous thallus without any prothallus delimiting it from other lichens, or with a thinning grey prothallus; small (0.2–0.4(–0.55) mm diam.), crowded, rounded to irregular, angular, apothecia, 1–6(–15) per areole, the disc orange-scarlet to dark brick-red, the margins persistent, concolorous with disc or slightly paler; ascospores 2-locular, 9–11 × 5–6 μm, the septum to 3–3.5 μm thick; and the characteristic I+ blue reaction of the whole apothecial tissues (Magnusson 1943b: 281). It is separated from C. cinnbarina by the colour and structure of the thallus margin. For additional notes on this species see Wetmore & Kärnefelt (1999: 689).