Pseudocyphellaria cinnamomea (A.Rich.) Vain.
Sticta cinnamomea A. Rich., Voy. Astrolabe Bot.: 28 (1832).
Lectotype: New Zealand. Nelson, Havre de l'Astrolabe. ?D'Urville, ex herb. Bory de St-Vincent, PC-THURET! The coloured plate published by Richard ( Atlas Astrolabe Bot.: tab. 8, fig. 3 (1833) accurately depicts the species.
Thallus laciniate-lobate, loosely attached, to 10 cm diam. Lobes linear-elongate, 2-6(-8) cm long, narrow, 3-5(-8) mm wide, laciniate, strapshaped, subcanaliculate, irregularly to subdichotomously branched, loosely imbricate or discrete, margins entire, thickened below, subascendent. Upper surface dark slate-blue or yellowish-blue when wet, minutely maculate (×10 lens), cinnamon-brown or yellowish when dry, smooth, often with pale brownish or white spots or blotches, matt, without soredia, isidia, phyllidia or pseudocyphellae. Medulla white. Photobiont blue-green. Lower surface whitish to yellowish-buff, darker centrally, uniformly tomentose to margins, tomentum silky, rather short, pale at margins, darker centrally, conspicuously ribbed, costate centrally. Pseudocyphellae small, white, punctiform, scattered, sunk in tomentum, 0.1-0.2 mm diam., flat. Apothecia laminal, ± sessile, 0.4-4.0 mm diam., disc plane or subconvex, dark red-brown or blackening, margins thin, pale, crenulate, obscuring disc when young, excluded with age, thalline exciple granular-verrucose. Ascospores brown, oblong-fusiform, 1-3-septate, (22-)24-30(-33) × 8-11 µm. Chemistry: 7β-acetoxyhopane-22-ol, hopane-15α,22-diol, ± gyrophoric acid.
N: Throughout. S: Nelson, Westland, Fiordland. Mainly a coastal, lowland species characteristic of deeply shaded, moist, humid habitats. On tree trunks, twings of understorey shrubs (e.g., Lophomyrtus, Pseudowintera) and on rocks on the forest floor. It has a similar distribution to P. carpoloma.
Australasian
P. cinnamomea is a deep-shade species closely related to P. dissimilis but distinguished from it by the entire, non-isidiate margins, the canaliculate lobes with well-developed midrib on the lower surface, and the marginal apothecia. It is a papery, rather brittle species and in older parts gives the impression of being stalked. On prolonged storage, specimens stain herbarium paper reddishbrown.
