Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Wellington, 5 Mile Stream, Rimutaka State Forest, E of Lower Hutt, M.E. Hale 58809 – US.

Description : Flora (1985: 339 – as Parmelia pseudotenuirima Gyeln.)

Chemistry : Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K+ yellow→red, C−, KC+ red, Pd+ orange; containing atranorin and salazinic acid.

N: Northland (Pandora) to Wellington. S: Nelson. Ch: (Awatotara Stream). Mainly coastal and lowland on Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, fenceposts and rarely on rocks or soil. Apparently endemic: still very poorly collected and obviously rare.

Endemic

Illustrations : Hale (1987: 6, fig. 4F; 33, fig. 19A).

Parmelia novae-zelandiae was earlier identified as the Australian endemic, P. pseudotenuirima (Galloway & Elix 1983: Galloway 1985a), although variation in the New Zealand collections was subsequently recognised (Galloway & Elix 1984: 445). It is characterised by: the large thallus; large, discrete pseudocyphellae (as in P. tenuirima); the coarse, irregularly inflated isidia; and salazinic acid in the medulla.