Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Auckland Is., Observation Hill, on dead twigs of Neopanax, 15.i.1963, P.W. James 1163 – BM.

Description : Flora (1985: 289–290).

Chemistry : Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K+ yellow→red, C−, KC+ red, Pd+ orange; containing stictic, hypostictic and hyposalazinic acids.

N: Taranaki (Mt Taranaki)). S: Canterbury (Banks Peninsula), Otago (Flagstaff, Maungatua, Olivine Ra.), Southland (Longwood Ra., Cascade Cove, Dusky Sound). A: Mainly subalpine on twigs of Dracophyllum and Olearia in scrub or on isolated trees above treeline. Probably more widespread. Also in Tasmania (James & Galloway (1992: 244; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Illustrations : James & Galloway (1992: 243, fig. 89C); Kantvilas & Jarman (1999: 87).

Menegazzia testacea is characterised by: the corticolous habit; the grey thallus that is commonly burnished red-brown in exposed habitats; 2-spored asci; and hypostictic acid in the medulla. Tasmanian collections lack hypostictic and hyposalazinic acid. It is a distinctive species encircling small twigs at the ends of branches of subalpine shrubs (especially Dracophyllum).