Flora of New Zealand Series

P. fimbriata D. Galloway et P. James, Lichenologist 15: 142 (1983).

Holotype: New Zealand. Nelson, Lake Rotoiti, Peninsula. On bark of Nothofagus menziesii. 28 February, 1980. DJ. Galloway, CHR 381021!

Thallus rather loosely attached, orbicular to spreading, to 25 cm diam. Lobes dissected, irregularly elongate-laciniate, branching subdichotomous to irregular or subimbricate, margins irregular, lacerate-denticulate, white-pubescent, subascendent, ± copiously phyllidiate. Upper surface bright lettuce-green when wet, yellowish-grey or olivaceous or brownish or reddish when dry, smooth, coriaceous to somewhat scabrid-areolate, even or weakly undulate, without soredia, maculae or pseudocyphellae. Phyllidia mainly marginal occasionally laminal, ± palmately divided, flattened, dorsiventral, upper surface as in main lobes, ± finely white-pubescent, especially at apices. Medulla white, 350 µm thick, rather loose. Photobiont green, 10-13.5 µm diam., in a rather irregular layer, 100-150 µm thick. Apothecia rather sparse, sessile, marginal or submarginal, often associated with phyllidia, to 6 mm diam., disc red-brown to dark brown, smooth, matt, epruinose, with a thick, persistent, raised, crenulate-scabrid margin, thalline exciple massive, verucose-areolate, red-brown. Ascospores 1-septate, brown, fusiform-ellipsoid, 20-25 × 8-11 µm. Chemistry: 7β-acetoxyhopan-22-ol, hopane-15α,22-diol, hopane-7β,22-diol (tr.).

N: Wellington (Waipakihi Valley, Kaimanawa Ra., Kapiti I.). S: Westland to Fiordland, east of the Main Divide, Banks Peninsula to Invercargill. Lowland and subalpine on bark of forest trees in moderate shade often well-developed at forest margins.

Endemic

P. fimbriata is one of a small group of endemic species characterised by marginal tomentum of the lobes. It is distinguished from P. coriacea by the marginal phyllidia and from P. fimbriatoides by the green photobiont and rather broader spores.