Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Crocynia vouauxii Hue, Bull. Soc. bot. Fr. 71: 392 (1924).

≡Leproloma vouauxii (Hue) J.R.Laundon, Lichenologist 21 (1): 13 (1989).

Description : Thallus of powdery lobes, forming irregular rosettes, to irregularly delimited, small, leprose crusts, whitish to pale yellowish green-grey. Surface ecorticate, comprising a mass of pulverulent, convex granules, up to 0.4 mm diam., but which sometimes erode, leaving a leprose membrane. Lobes and granules covered with loosely entangled hyphae often projecting outwards (× 25 lens). Margins obscurely lobed. Medulla white, exposed in places. Lower surface a weft of loosely entangled hyphae forming the early development of a whitish grey to brownish prothallus. Apothecia unknown.

Chemistry : Thallus K−, C−, Pd− to + reddish orange; containing; pannaric acid-6-methylester (major), 4-oxypannaric acid-6-methylester (minor), 4-oxypannaric acid-2-methyl ester (tr.). pannaric acid-2-methyl ester (tr. to minor), methyl porphyrilate (tr. to minor), ±porphyrilic acid (tr.) and ±atranorin (tr.) (Elix & Tønsberg 2004: 44).

S: (Canterbury (Arthur's Pass; Cave Stream), Otago (Coronet Peak). On limestone outcrops in grassland, in moss, and on high-alpine soils, 650–1640 m. Known also from Greenland, Spitsbergen, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Europe, Turkey, East and South Africa, Nepal, Japan, Hawai'i, Papua New Guinea, Tasmania, Dominican Republic, United States, Baja California, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and South Orkey Is, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula to Lat. 68ºS (Laundon 1989; Leuckert & Kümmerling 1991; Lohtander 1995; Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001; Kukwa 2002a; Egan et al. 2002; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004; Søchting et al. 2004; Tønsberg 2004b).

Bipolar

Illustrations : Dobson (1992: 188; 2000: 214; 2005: 245); Wirth (1995b: 546); Hansen (1995: 102).

Lepraria vouauxii is characterised by: the muscicolous/terricolous habit; obscurely lobed thalli; whitish to pale yellowish, greenish grey colour; the conspicuously exposed white medulla; the poorly developed prothallus; and the presence of pannaric acid methylesters. It is difficult to distinguish from Lepraria lobificans, but this latter species does not have dibenzofurans, containing instead atranorin, constictic and stictic acids and zeorin.