Flora of New Zealand Series

S. ramulosum var. compressum Church. Bab., Fl. N.Z. 2: 294 (1855).

Holotype: New Zealand, Sine loco. H.L. Travers, PC-HUE.

Thallus small, spreading, to 3.5 cm tall. Pseudopodetia ± erect, branched, terete or more commonly flattened, appearing dorsiventral, corticate, cortex commonly nodular or cracked. Phyllocladia conspicuously and characteristically flattened, branched, leaflike, pinnatifidly arranged, paler on the lower side, developed towards the tips of primary and secondary branches and appearing as proliferations of these. Cephalodia yellowish-brown, to 3 mm diam., spherical to subglobose, slightly wrinkled when young, becoming areolate and cracked with age, solid-cored. Apothecia terminal, small, 1-2 mm wide, disc black with a concolorous margin when young, excluded at maturity, thalline exciple brown, smooth. Hypothecium brown. Ascospores 6-8 per ascus, cylindrical-fusiform, 5-10-septate, 40-78 × 3.5-4 µm. Chemistry: Atranorin and fumarprotocetraric acid.

N: Rangitikei River. S: Nelson (St Arnaud Ra.), Otago (Haast Pass, tributaries of Rees and Dart Rivers). St: (Mt Anglem to Port Pegasus). Widely distributed but rarely collected, from s.l. to 2100 m, from exposed subalpine grassland (thallus uniformly creamy-white to greyish), to deep shade in forested areas (thallus bright green above, pale yellowish-green to whitish below).

Endemic

S. fronduliferum is distinguished from other taxa in the genus in New Zealand by the laterally compressed pseudopodetia with leaflike, flattened phyllocladia which are pale on the lower surface.