Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Tephromela atra (Huds.) Hafellner [=Lichen ater Huds.]

Description : Thallus crustose, verrucose, to areolate, pale, somewhat glossy. Prothallus forming a black border to thallus, sometimes visible between areolae. Medulla I−. Photobiont green, chlorococcoid. Ascomata apothecia, immersed to sessile, disc black, concave to convex. Thalline exciple present or absent. Proper exciple thin, inconspicuous. Epithecium and hymenium purplish or greenish, N+ red. Hypothecium yellow-brown. Hamathecium of paraphyses, simple or sparingly branched, strongly gelatinised, apices not swollen but often pigmented. Asci 8-spored, Bacidia -type (Hafellner 1984: 345, fig. 89; Hertel & Rambold 1985: 481, fig. 3A; Malcolm & Galloway 1997: 187). Ascospores simple, colourless, ellipsoidal, without a distinct perispore, ±thick-walled. Conidiomata pycnidia, immersed, wall colourless except for green pigments around ostiole. Coniodiophores branched, conidiogenous cells in chains, pleurogenous. Conidia oblong-ellipsoidal to shortly thread-like, ±straight, simple, colourless.

Tephromela is a genus of c. 30 species (Hafellner 1984; Hertel & Rambold 1985; Rambold 1989; Kalb 1991; Poelt & Grube 1993; Rambold 1993; Haugan & Timdal 1994; Kirk et al. 2001; Kalb 2004a; Nash et al. 2004c; Elix & Kalb 2006) included in the family Ramalinaceae (Erikssson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004). Tephromela has a K+ purple epithecium, thick-walled paraphyses, simple, ellipsoidal ascospores, branched conidiophores producing bacilliform conidia laterally. Useful information on the genus is given in Kalb (2004a) who describes several new taxa from Australia and Brazil. The dark purplish hymenium and the lecanorine apothecia associated with the most well-known species, T. atra, are typical of only part of the genus (Ekman 1996a). One species is recorded from New Zealand, being known in the earlier literature in New Zealand lichens as Parmelia atra (Babington 1855) or Lecanora atra (Hooker 1867; Nylander 1866b, 1888; Müller Argoviensis 1894; Hellbom 1896; Zahlbruckner 1941; Martin & Child 1972; Galloway 1985a). It is a commonly collected species both from coastal and inland areas. The Tephromela armeniaca -group (no taxa present in New Zealand) was transferred to the new genus Calvitimela Hafellner (Hafellner & Türk 2001: 150–151; Hertel & Andreev 2003: 541–542).