Flora of New Zealand Series

=Aspidelia beckettii Stirt, Trans. N.Z. Inst. 32: 81 (1900) nom. inval. [See also Culberson (1966); Galloway & Elix (1983: 414–416).]

=Parmelia tenuirima var. platyna Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 356 (1941).

Aspidelia beckettii. Holotype: New Zealand. Canterbury, Oxford Bush, 1895, T.W.N. Beckett – BM. Isotype – CHR 374945.

Parmelia tenuirima var. platyna. Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Mt Cargill, Dunedin, on Nothofagus, J.S. Thomson ZA 56 – W. Isotype – CHR 160205.

Description : Flora (1985: 342).

Chemistry : Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K+ yellow→red, C−, KC+ red, Pd+ orange; containing atranorin, chloroatranorin, salazinic acid (major) and consalazinic acid (minor).

N: Gisborne (Lake Waikaremoana), Wellington (Waipakahi Valley, Pongaroa, Manawatu). S: Nelson (Tophouse) to Southland. St: Widespread as an epiphyte of Nothofagus, lowland to subalpine. It is the largest Parmelia in beech forests of South I., and at forest margins the large rosettes are visually arresting. It is rarely if ever found on twigs, and appears more common in the forest of South I., than in those of North I., where it is frequently replaced by P. erumpens. Known also from SE Australia including Tasmania (Galloway & Elix 1983; Hale 1987; Elix 1994m; Kantvilas & Jarman 1999; Kantvilas et al. 2002; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Exsiccati : Vězda (1985: No. 2061); Elix (1989: No. 188).

Illustrations : Galloway & Elix (1983: 412, fig. 19; 413, fig. 20; 414, fig. 21); Hale (1987: 10, fig. 8A; 12, fig. 10D; 45, fig. 23C); Kantvilas & Jarman (1999: 100); Kantvilas et al. (2002: 115).

Parmelia tenuirima is characterised by: very broad rounded lobes (it has the broadest lobes of any species in Parmelia); conspicuous, discrete, pseudocyphellae; bacillar conidia; and a faintly greenish cast to the upper surface. In contrast P. signifera has denser, reticulate pseudocyphellae; bifusiform conidia; and often a brownish cast to the upper surface. P. tenuirima is corticolous whereas P. signifera is saxicolous.