Pannaria crustata Stirt.
P. brunnea var. pulverulenta Knight, T.N.Z.I. 16: 401 (1884).
Parmeliella diffracta Müll. Arg., Hedwigia 32: 123 (1893).
Lectotype: New Zealand. Wellington (Otari Hills). J. Buchanan 193, GLAM!
P. brunnea var. pulverulenta. Lectotype: New Zealand. Sine loco (prob. Wellington). Charles Knight, WELT!
Thallus crustose, ± minutely squamulose becoming areolate-cracked with age, very closely attached, orbicular to spreading, to 10 cm diam., bounded by a blue-black prothallus extending 0.5-2.0 mm beyond squamules, saxicolous. Squamules at first distinctly lobate-radiating, rosette-forming, ± stellate with deeply incised margins, to 2 mm diam., older squamules crowded, strongly imbricate, becoming densely lobulate, lobules minute, ± dorsiventral (not to be confused with isidia), and often forming a diffract-areolate crust. Upper surface yellow-brown, dark olive greenish or greyish, smooth, matt, without isidia, or soredia, brownish at lobe margins. Lower surface dark, with a felt of blue-black tangled rhizines. Apothecia frequent, sessile, to 1 mm diam., disc pale yellowish to red-brown with a paler, thin proper margin, plane at first, becoming convex, thalline margin entire, thin, concolorous with thallus, ± crenulate, often occluded. Ascospores ellipsoid, with one or both ends acute, wall smooth to crenulate, 14-20(-22) × 6-9(-11) µm.
N: Wellington (York Bay). S: Nelson (Black Hill, Lake Rotoiti), Canterbury, (Banks Peninsula, Peel Forest, Lake Ohau), Otago (Trotters Gorge, Dunedin). On rocks, both coastal and inland in moderate to deep shade at forest margins and interiors, also in alpine grassland.
Australasian
