Siphula pickeringii
Description : Thallus fruticose in irregular clumps, 2–5 mm wide. Lobes 1–2(–2.5) cm tall, very narrow (0.2–0.3 mm diam), to 0.3 mm thick, terete to subterete, erect to straggling, crowded-entangled, subdichotomously to irregularly branched, sometimes twisted; grey-white, surface furrowed or irregularly uneven, apices tapering to blunt or truncate.
Chemistry : Cortex and medulla K+ weak yellow or −, C−, KC−, PD+ yellow-orange to brownish, UV+ white; containing baeomycesic and squamatic acids.
N: South Auckland (Mt Moehau Coromandel Peninsula). Among mosses at base of trees; still very poorly collected and understood here. Known also from Hawai'i and Juan Fernandez (Magnusson & Zahlbruckner 1945: 29–30; Kantvilas 2002a: 44).
Illustration : Kantvilas (2002a: 43, fig. 3K).
Siphula pickeringii is characterised by: the muscicolous/terricolous habit; narrow, terete to subterete, irregularly twisted or furrowed, greyish white lobes; and baeomycesic and squamatic acids (UV+ white) in the medulla.
