Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Sarrameana septata Sipman & Aptroot in A. Aptroot & H. Sipman, Willdenowia 20: 248 (1991).

Description : Thallus pale grey-white, thin to rather thick and cracked, 1–3 cm diam., with a black, marginal prothallus. Apothecia numerous, rounded, sessile, lecideine, 0.4–0.8 mm diam., margins black or occasionally dark brownish, sometimes with adhering thallus fragments; disc plane to convex, black, epruinose. Exciple orange-brown, with a discontinuous, hyaline, K+ yellow, thalline layer, 10–20 μm thick, mainly at the lower edges. Epithecium crimson-black, K+ purple-red. Hymenium 60 μm tall, colourless or streaked crimson or pale-purple, especially in upper parts, mostly lacking oil droplets. Paraphyses sparingly branched and anastomosing, with crimson-black apices. Hypothecium orange to brown-black, unchanged in K. Ascospores narrowly fusiform–acicular, bent, simple or more commonly with 3–7 thin, rather crooked septa, apices acute or attenuate with short projections, 32–50 × 4–6 μm, spirally contorted in asci. Pycnidia immersed, scattered, punctiform, black. Conidia bacillar, colourless, 9 × 0.8 μm.

Chemistry. Cortex K+ yellow, Pd−; containing thamnolic acid.

S: Nelson (Saddle Hill Track, and Lake Rotoiti). On branches of Dacrydium cupressinum and Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, often intermixed with Sarrameana albidoplumbea (q.v.). Still rather poorly collected in New Zealand (Vězda et al. 1992). Known also from Papua New Guinea and Sabah (Aptroot & Sipman 1991; Farkas 1995).

Palaeotropical

Illustrations : Aptroot & Sipman (1991: 249, fig. 10); Kantvilas & Vězda (1996: 327, fig. 1D) – as Sarrameana septata.

Loxospora septata is characterised by: the corticolous habit; the black, lecideine apothecia; narrowly fusiform to acicular ascospores; and the distinctive purplish pigmentation of its apothecial tissues. It is closely similar to Sarrameana albidoplumbea but is distinguished from it by the presence of purple pigments in the apothecial tissues, the presence of thamnolic acid, and the relative scarcity of oil droplets in the hymenium.