Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus foliose, dorsiventral, heteromerous, lobate, orbicular, 3-15 cm diam., uniformly closely attached to substrate even at margins, corticolous or saxicolous. Lobes variable, sublinear, apically obtuse to subirregular, apically rounded, margins smooth, black-rimmed, without cilia or other ornamentation. Upper cortex of palisade plectenchyma with a thin, pored epicortex. Upper surface smooth or wrinkled, isidia, pustules and soralia present or absent, pseudocyphellae and maculae absent. Medulla white. Photobiont green. Lower surface black or pale brown, broad-lobed species often with a narrow, brown, naked marginal zone. Rhizines moderately abundant, uniformly simple, often pale at apices. Apothecia uniform, sessile to subpedicellate, 1-3 mm diam., disc imperforate, red-brown, shining or matt, thalline exciple concolorous with thallus, smooth, isidiate, sorediate or pustulate. Ascospores 8 per ascus, simple, colourless, mostly within range 7-13 × 6-10 µm.

Pseudoparmelia a generic segregate of Parmelia sens. lat. , [Hale Smithson. Contr. Bot. 31: 1-62 (1976)], contains c. 76 species of which seven are known from New Zealand. It is still very much undercollected in New Zealand and at least two undescribed species occur in Nothofagus forest in both North and South Is.