Neuropogon ciliatus (Nyl.) Kremp.
Neuropogon melaxanthus var. ciliatus Nyl. J. Linn. Soc. Lond. Bot. 9: 245 (1866).
Holotype: New Zealand. Nelson. Nelson Mountains, Tarndale. Dr A. Sinclair, H-NYL 36365!
Thallus fruticose, erect, tufted to spreading, to 9 cm tall. Branches 2-3 mm wide at base, weakly dichotomously to richly branching above. Surface yellow to brown-red at base, often with black cracks, becoming conspicuously blackened or yellow-grey or bluish-purple above with conspicuous black bands, not papillate or sorediate, smooth, waxy and shining, often ± strongly faveolate. Apothecia frequent, lateral on branches, disc bluish-black, margins smooth, concolorous with thallus, with ray-like branchlets, black, few to many, thalline exciple smooth. Chemistry: Cortex K-; medulla K+ yellow-red, C-, KC+ red, Pd+ orange-red. Norstictic, ± protocetraric, salazinic and usnic acids.
N: Wellington (Mt Ruapehu, south side). S: Nelson (mountains of NW Nelson) to Southland (West Dome) mainly east of Main Divide with outliers on Banks Peninsula (Mt Sinclair), Mt Peel, Silver Peaks, Mt Maungatua, Blue Mountains. St: (Mt Anglem). On rock faces and outcrops and stones in fellfield, 550-3000 m.
Australasian
N. ciliatus is the most widely collected species of Neuropogon in New Zealand and is often a conspicuous component of alpine vegetation, especially on the mountains of eastern Canterbury and Central Otago.
