Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lecidea petraeoides Nyl. ex. C.Bab. & Mitt. in J.D. Hooker, Fl. Tasm. 2: 352 (1859).

≡Protoparmelia petraeoides (Nyl. ex C.Bab. & Mitt.) Hertel, Beih. Nova Hedwigia 79: 452 (1984).

≡Pyrrhospora petraeoides (Nyl. ex C.Bab. & Mitt.) Hafellner, Herzogia 9: 733 (1993).

=Lecidea subtenebrosa Nyl., Flora 50: 439 (1867).

=Lecidea myoplaca Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 311 (1941).

≡Psora myoplaca (Zahlbr.) C.W.Dodge, Nova Hedwigia 19: 490 (1971) ["1970"].

Lecidea subtenebrosa. Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, sine loco, ex Herb. Jones – H-NYL 19635.

Lecidea myoplaca. Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Horse Ra. near Dunback, 600 m, on rock, J.S. Thomson T1424 [ZA 3700] – W. Isotypes – BM; CHR 545169, OTA 029441. [Galloway (1985a: 213) chose the OTA material as lectotype, without having seen holotype material in W, which now overrules this earlier lectotypification.]

Description : Flora (1985: 239 – as Lecidea subtenebrosa). See also Rambold (1989: 131), Kantvilas & Elix (1994: 298).

Chemistry : Medulla K+ yellow→red, C−, Pd± yellow; containing norstictic and connorstictic acids (Rambold 1989).

N: Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi). S: Nelson (Arthur Ra., Cobb Valley), Canterbury (Hanmer, Banks Peninsula, Mt Peel), Otago (Central Otago mountains [where it is often very common and occasionally dominant on schist tor saxicolous communities] to Silver Peak, Abbott's Hill and Flagstaff near Dunedin, and rarely on grave surrounds in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin), Southland (West Dome, Key Summit, Homer). C: [Map in Hertel (1985b: 331)]. On subalpine to high-alpine rocks. Known also from Australia including Tasmania, South Africa, and Sardinia (Schneider 1980; Hertel 1989; Rambold 1989; Nimis 1993; Kantvilas & Elix 1994; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Elix 2004b).

Bipolar

Exsiccati : Hertel (1989a: No. 213 – as Protoparmelia petraeoides).

Illustrations : Babington & Mitten (1859: tab. CC, fig. D – as Lecidea petraeoides); Schneider (1980, 215, fig. 43, fig. 80 – as Lecidea myoplaca); Kantvilas & Elix (1994: 300, fig. 2); Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 124); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 115); Lumbsch et al. (2001: 31); Fryday (2002a: 425, fig. 1A); Flora of Australia56A (2004: xvi, pl. 24).

Ramboldia petraeoides is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; its prominent pale- to dark-brown areolate thallus containing norstictic and connorstictic acids; by the reddish brown to dark-brown lecideine apothecia, mostly c. 0.5–0.8 mm diam.; the Lecanora -type asci; the slender paraphyses with somewhat capitate apices; and the narrowly ellipsoidal ascospores, 8.5–11 × 3.5 μm. Southern South American populations (Falkland Is, Argentina) having consistently innate, flat to concave apothecia are referred to R. petraeoides var. concava (Müll.Arg.) Fryday (Fryday 2002a).