Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lichen chrysophthalmus L., Mant. Pl.: 311 (1771).

≡Xanthoanaptychia chrysophthalma (L.) S.Kondratyuk & Kärnefelt, Ukrayins'kyi Botanichnyi Zhurnal 60 (4): 435 (2003).

Description : Flora (1985: 566).

Chemistry : Chemosyndrome A (Søchting 1997; Søchting & Frödén 2002); parietin (major, teloschistin, fallacinal, parietinic acid, emodin and erythroglaucin (Elix 1986; Søchting & Frödén 2002).

N: Northland to Wellington S: Nelson (Farewell Spit) to Southland (Bluff). St: A corticolous species widely distributed in lowland and primarily urban habitats in coastal areas where it is a frequent epiphyte of both native and exotic trees and shrubs, especially of fruit trees. It is a species of high-light environments and is commonly found in northern coastal habitats (Hayward & Hayward 1973b, 1974a, 1974b, 1983, 1984, 1986; Hayward et al. 1975, 1986; Hayward & Hollis 1993) on the margins and canopy of coastal forest and on the windswept vegetation of open clifftops and bluffs, especially on petrel scrub (Coprosma repens and Melicytus novaezelandiae). Further south it is common on wayside trees and shrubs and especially on scattered Discaria toumatou, Cytisus scoparius and Leptospermum scoparium in grassland and scrub on wasteland, riverbeds and roadsides. It is known from a wide range of phorophytes: Agathis australis (often on leaves), Avicennia marina, Berberis glaucocarpa, Betula pendula, Carmichaelia sp., Cordyline australis, Coprosma crassifolia, C. propinqua, C. repens, C. rigida, Crataegus monogyna, Cupressus macrocarpa, Fraxinus excelsior, Fuchsia excorticata, Hebe spp., Hoheria angustifolia, Ilex aquifolium, Lophomyrtus obcordata, Lycium ferocissimum, Malus spp., Melicytus alpinus, M. novaezelandiae, Muehlenbeckia complexa, Olearia lineata, O. virgata, Pinus sp., Pittosporum crassifolium, Plagianthus divaricatus, Podocarpus ferrugineus, Prunus sp., Pseudotsuga sp., Ribes uva-crispa, Rosa rubiginosa, Salix fragilis, Sambucus nigra, Sophora microphylla, S. prostrata, Ulmus campestris. It also colonises fenceposts, painted wooden surfaces, plastic shading in gardens and nurseries, exposed boulders in scrub and farmland and on coastal rocks, s.l. to 400 m. It commonly associates with the following lichens: Candelaria concolor, Candelariella vitellina, Dirinaria applanata, Haematomma babingtonii, Hyperphyscia adglutinata, Lecanora flavomarginata, Opegrapha intertexta, Parmelina labrosa, Parmotrema chinense, Physcia adscendens, P. jackii, Punctelia subrudecta, Ramalina celastri, R. glaucescens, Rimelia reticulata, Teloschistes velifer, T. xanthorioides, Usnea spp., Xanthomendoza novozelandica, Xanthoria parietina and X. polycarpa. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Macaronesia, Cape Verde Is, Africa, southern Arabia, Oceania, Australia, North and South America (Almborn 1989; Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Brodo et al. 2001; Becker 2002; Coppins 2002b; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003).

Cosmopolitan [though absent from Asia (Almborn 1989)]

Illustrations : Filson (1969: 91, pl. 3, 93, pl. 4); Martin & Child (1972: 121, pl. 33); Filson & Rogers (1979: pl. 15A; 169, fig. 28F, H, I, J); Hayward & Hayward (1983: 202, fig. 1c); Wirth (1987: 457; 1995b: 14); Swinscow & Krog (1988: pl. 14C); Jørgensen et al. (1994a: 292, fig. 16); Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 110, 149); Dobson (2000: 373; 2005: 421); Purvis (2000: 100); Brodo et al. (2001: 674, pl. 826); Bannister & Knight (2002: 12); McCarthy & Malcolm (2004: 59).

Exsiccati : Elix (1986: Nos 123, 124).

Teloschistes chrysophthalmus is characterised by: the corticolous habit; fruticose, subfruticose or caespitose thalli formed of ±erect dorsiventral, corticate lobes showing varying degrees of cracking on the lower surface and furnished with prominent marginal and sometimes laminal cilia, and distinctly pedicellate, marginal, or terminal rounded, thin and often folded, expanded apothecia having prominent marginal cilia and yellow to orange-yellow discs. It has small, immersed to slightly protruding pycnidia, with bacillar to narrowly ellipsoidal conidia. It is the only species of Teloschistes in New Zealand with this type of conidia. The species varies in colour from pale grey to yellow to orange, depending on the light regime of the habitat, with shade forms being grey or grey-green (parietin-deficient) and specimens from high-light positions being yellow to orange. Murray (1960b: 203–205) recognised several taxonomic entities for forms differing only or mainly in their parietin content, distinctions which are no longer recognised or accepted. It also shows considerable plasticity in both size and degree of development of cilia on both lobe and apothecial margins.