Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lichen saxatilis L., Sp. Pl.: 1142 (1753).

Description : Flora (1985: 340).

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

S: Otago (Old Man Ra., Alexandra, Dunedin). On rocks, rare. The most widespread species in the genus. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, North and South America, South Georgia, South Orkney Is, South Shetland Is and the Antarctic Peninsula (Hale 1987; Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Goward et al. 1994b; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Nash & Elix 2002d; Coppins 2002b; Wolseley et al. 2002; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004; Molina et al. 2004; Søchting et al. 2004).

Bipolar

Illustrations : Moberg & Holmåsen (1982: 94); Galloway & Elix (1983: 406, fig. 11); Thomson (1984: 310); Wirth (1987: 329; 1995a: 457, fig. 46B; 1995b: 23, 663); Hale (1987: 8, fig. 6C; 13, fig. 11F; 15, fig. 12H; 37, fig. 20E); Phillips (1987: 177); Hale & Cole (1988: 80, fig. 36A); Vitt et al. (1988: 219); Dobson (1992: 230; 2000: 273; 2005: 303); Goward et al. (1994b: 93, fig. 5B); Hansen (1995: 46); McCune & Gieser (1997: 189); Brodo et al. (2001: 483, pl. 562); Sérusiaux et al. (2004: 117); Pope (2005: 34).

Parmelia saxatilis is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; sublinear, contiguous to imbricate lobes; a reticulum of effigurate pseudocyphellae soon becoming isidiate; cylindrical, simple to sparsely branched isidia; and salazinic acid in the medulla. Recently Molina et al. (2004: 47–48) designated an epitype from a modern, sequenced collection from northern Sweden in order to fix the application of this important and widely used name to a member of the Atlantic population of P. saxatilis, as understood by Crespo et al. (2002). A closely related species, P. serrana, was recently described for morphologically similar material found in Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranen alpine areas, with P. saxatilis s. str. apparently preferring more oceanic areas, and having a bipolar distribution (Molina et al. 2004).