Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Parmelia saxatilis var. signifera (Nyl.) Müll.Arg., Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 31 (2): 30 (1892).

≡Imbricaria saxatilis var. signifera (Nyl.) Jatta, Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. nov. ser. 9: 469 (1902).

Holotype: New Zealand. Sine loco, 1882, Charles Knight – H-NYL 34828.[For additional notes on Knight's collections of this species see Galloway & Elix (1983: 406) and Galloway (1985a: 341).]

Description : Flora (1985: 341).

Chemistry : Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K+ yellow→red, C−, KC+ red, Pd+ orange; containing atranorin, chloroatranorin, salazinic acid (major), consalazinic acid (minor) and ±lobaric acid (minor).

N: Kaimanawa Ra. S: Nelson to Southland, both E and W of the Main Divide. St: (Mt Anglem to Port Pegasus). A: C: Alpine–subalpine, from s.l. (Port Pegasus) to 2500 m, saxicolous or terricolous (particularly common on schist outcrops and tors in subalpine to high-alpine sites on Central Otago mountains), rarely overgrowing prostrate vegetation on exposed alpine soils, but never on tree bark. Known also from SE Australia and Tasmania (Galloway & Elix 1983; Elix 1994m; Kantvilas et al. 2002; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Illustrations : Galloway & Elix (1983: 407, fig. 12; 408, fig. 13); Hale (1987: 8, fig. 6F; 42, fig. 22B); Malcolm in Grgurinovic (1994: Frontispiece); Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 97, 119, 166, 171); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 53, 100; 2001: 68); Kantvilas et al. (2002: 108); McCarthy & Malcolm (2004: 54).

Parmelia signifera is characterised by: the thick, leathery thalli; the lack of soredia and isidia; and the presence of salazinic acid in the medulla. Although reasonably constant in morphology, specimens of P. signifera show considerable variation in colour and texture, depending on the degree of exposure of the habitat. In damp, sheltered sites, lobes are thinner, larger and paler coloured, whereas in exposed habitats lobes are thicker, more crowded, lobular–incised, generally smaller, and much darker coloured. It is distinguished from P. protosignifera by the medullary chemistry (P. protosignifera has protocetraric and not salazinic acid); and from corticolous P. tenuirima by the smaller ascospores, the paucity of pycnidia, the imperforate apothecial discs, the thicker thallus, smaller, crowded lobes with phyllidiate–lacerate margins, and a pattern of pseudocyphellae at the margins, which do not expose medullary hyphae (Galloway & Elix 1983: 409).