Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Sticta coronata Müll.Arg., Flora 62: 163 (1879).

=Sticta hirta Stirt., Rep.Trans. Glasgow Soc. Field Nat. 1: 23 (1873) nonS. hirta (Nyl.) Trevis. [1869].

≡Pseudocyphellaria hirta (Stirt.) D.J.Galloway & P.James, Lichenologist 9 (2): 95 (1977).

=Sticta orygmaea var. calvescens Stirt., Trans. N. Z. Inst. 32: 73 (1900).

Lectotype: New Zealand. Westland, Greymouth, comm. F.v. Mueller [most probably from a collection of Richard Helms sent to Mueller in Melbourne who then forwarded it on to Müller Argoviensis] – G [fide Galloway & James (1977: 95)].

Sticta hirta. Lectotype: New Zealand. Westland, Okarito, i.1872, J. Buchanan – WELT (formerly in OTA) [fide Galloway & James (1977: 95)].

Sticta orygmaea var. calvescens. Lectotype: New Zealand. Wellington, J. Buchanan – BM [fide Galloway & James (1977: 95)].

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 434); Galloway (1988a: 107); Galloway et al. (2001b: 55–56).

Chemistry : Pulvinic acid, pulvinic dilactone, calycin, polyporic acid, coronatoquinone, 2α,3β,22α-triacetoxystictane, 22α-hydroxystictane-3-one, 2α,3β-diacetoxystictane-22-ol, stictane-3β,22α-diol, 2α-acetoxystictane-3β,22α-diol, 3β-acetoxystictane-2α,22α-diol and stictane-2α,3β,22α-triol (Galloway et al. 2001b). The acetone-soluble, reddish purple medullary pigment that is so characteristic of this species eluded early attempts at purification and structural elucidation (Murray 1952; Chin et al. 1973), but recently a successful structure and stereochemistry of a new pyranoaphthazarin, coronatoquinone [(1 S)-1,5,8,10-tetrahydroxy-7-methoxy-3-methyl-6,9-dihydro-1 H- naphthol [2,3- c] pyran-6,9-dione] was established for this purple pigment (Ernst-Russell et al. 2000), a triumph of modern synthetic chemistry, nicely closing a chapter that has remained open since the work of Zopf in the 1880s.

N: Northland to Wellington. S: Nelson to Southland. St: (Mt Anglem to Port Pegasus). Ch.: A: C: Ant.: Throughout [map in Galloway (1988a: 109, fig. 45)], often locally common on twigs and bark in full sunlight or in moderate shade in humid habitats, lowland to subalpine, s.l. to 1500 m. Known also from Tasmania (Kantvilas 1994b; Kantvilas & Jarman 1999; Galloway et al. 2001b; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Exsiccati : Vězda (1996a: No. 226).

Illustrations : Martin & Child (1972: 136, pl. 41); Galloway (1988a: 106, fig. 44); Malcolm & Malcolm (1989: 132, 133; 2000: 99); Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 106); Kantvilas & Jarman (1999: 116); Flora of Australia58A (2001: 98, pl. 35).

Pseudocyphellaria coronata is characterised by: broadly rounded lobes with minutely indented margins that are often also minutely phyllidiate; a strongly reticulate-faveolate upper surface with scattered often erumpent phyllidia; a yellow medulla; a green photobiont; a pale yellow to somewhat blackened lower surface that is mainly glabrous and only sparingly tomentose; small, semi-immersed to sessile apothecia with dentate-phyllidiate margins; a complex chemistry containing polyporic acid, pigments, and stictanes (see above) and a characteristic reddish magenta acetone extract. The pigments in this species occasionally impart a purplish colour to thalli in the field, and specimens on long storage in the herbarium may also become suffused purple-red. It may be parasitised by the lichenicolous fungi * Dactylospora lobariella and * Wentiomyces tatjanae (q.v.).