Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Roccellinastrum spongioideum Follmann

Description : Flora (1985: 516–517).

Roccellinastrum, first described from South America (Follmann 1968), is characterised by a byssoid thallus of thick-walled hyphae; immarginate apothecia with small, amyloid asci and branched paraphyses; a chlorococcoid photobiont; and protocetraric acid as the major secondary constituent (Henssen et al. 1982). It is included with some doubt in the family Micareaceae (Poelt 1974b; Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), though Henssen et al. (1982) included it in the family Lecideaceae, and Hafellner (1984) considered the byssoid thallus structure sufficiently distinct to describe the monogeneric family Roccellinastraceae. It was monographed by Henssen et al. (1982), and additional information and two new species were later described from Tasmania (Kantvilas 1990a). Four species are known, three in South America (Henssen et al. 1982) and in Tasmania (Kantvilas 1990a, 2004c) and two in New Zealand that are also found in Tasmania (Galloway & Kooperberg 2006).