Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Capitularia pleurota Flörke, Magazin Ges. naturfr. Fr. Berl. 2: 217 (1808).

Description : Flora (1985: 117–118). See also Archer (1988: 209; 1992b: 132).

Chemistry : Cortex K−, C−, KC+ yellow, Pd−; containing usnic acid (major), iso-usnic acid (major) and zeorin (major).

N: South Auckland (Mt Moehau), Gisborne (Napier). S: Nelson (Balloon Creek), Marlborough (Raglan Ra.), Westland (upper Otira Valley), Marlborough (Mt Fishtail), Canterbury (E of Lewis Pass, Hanmer, Poulter Valley, Woolshed Hill, Mt Binser, Black Hills Rakaia Valley, Hooker Valley, Liebig Ra., Ben Ohau Ra.), Otago (Mt Brewster, Cameron Flat Makarora, Canyon Creek Ahuriri Valley, Mt Alta Matukituki Valley, Forgotten River, Key Summit, Park Pass, Mt Minos, Dredgeburn, Turret Head Mt Earnslaw, The Remarkables, Pisa Ra., Old Man Ra., St Bathans Ra., Hawkdun Ra., St Marys Ra. Mt Kyeburn, Mt Pisgah Kakanui Mts, Rock & Pillar Ra., Umbrella Mts, Silver Peaks, Mt Charles Otago Peninsula, Maungatua, Blue Lake Garvie Mts, East Dome Garvie Mts), Southland (Pukerau, Makarewa, Seaward Bush, Awarua Bay, Cascade Cove Dusky Sound, Woodrow Burn Murchison Mts, Lake Hauroko, Lake Gunn) St: (Fright Cove Port Pegasus). C: Ant: Roadside banks, dry hillsides, peat soils, tussock grassland, dead tussock-bases, Leptospermum heath, on moss, rotting logs and sandy soil, s.l. to 2300 m. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, North, Central and South America, Oceania, Australia, Tasmania, Falkland Is, and Antarctica (Ahti 2000; Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001; Ahti & Hammer 2002; Aptroot 2002e; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Søchting et al. 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Thomson (1984: 154); Filson & Archer (1986: 228, fig. 10); Flora of Australia 54 : 215, fig. 55 (1992); Krog et al. (1994: 164); Hansen (1995: 31); Hutching (1998: 202 – as C. coccifera); Goward (1999: 117, fig. 8B); Kantvilas & Jarman (1999: 49); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 18, 76, 94); Brodo et al. (2001: 265, pl. 256); Pope (2005: 23).

The presence of iso-usnic acid and the partly corticate, somewhat bluish scyphose podetia with a somewhat felty cortex distinguish C. pleurota from other red-fruited, cup-forming species of Cladonia in New Zealand. The granular-sorediate to scaly interior of the cups of C. pleurota distinguish it from C. deformis, which has farinose-soredia in the interior of its cups.