Xanthoparmelia luteonotata
≡Parmelia luteonotata J.Steiner, Verhandl. zool.-bot.Ges. Wien 12: 472 (1902).
≡Neofuscelia luteonotata (J.Steiner) Essl., Mycotaxon 7: 51 (1978).
Description : Thallus moderately to loosely attached, up to 8 cm diam. Lobes short and somewhat rounded or elongate, somewhat imbricate, 0.5–3 mm wide. Upper surface olive-brown to dark-brown, smooth, becoming rugulose centrally, isidia absent. Medulla white. Lower surface pale-tan to pale-brown, moderately rhizinate; rhizines simple, to 0.5 mm long, pale-tan to brown. Apothecia to 5 mm diam., shortly pedicellate, disc concave becoming flat, sometimes convex, dull to shining, dark reddish brown to almost black; thalline exciple thick, prominent, entire, crenulate. Ascospores globose to short-ellipsoidal, thick-walled, 9–10 × 5–8 μm. Pycnidia common. Conidia weakly bifusiform, 5–6 × 1 μm.
Chemistry : Cortex K−, HNO3+ dark blue-green; medulla K−, C−, KC−, Pd−; containing divaricatic or stenosporic acids or both (Elix & Polly 1992).
S: Canterbury (Church of the Good Shepherd, Tekapo). On stone wall of church. Known also from SE Australia, Tasmania, N and S Africa and southern Europe (Elix 1994j; Kantvilas et al. 2002; Giordani et al. 2003; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003).
Cosmopolitan
Illustration : Esslinger (1977b: 199, pl. 29, fig. 109 – as Parmelia luteonotata).
Xanthoparmelia luteonotata is chemically and morphologically very similar to X. pulla, the most common non-isidiate species of brown Xanthoparmelia. The only consistent difference between the two species is the colour of the lower surface – this being pale-tan to brown in X. luteonotata but black-brown to black in X. pulla. The only other New Zealand brown species of Xanthoparmelia with a pale lower surface is X. melanobarbatica, a species distinguished by being more tightly adnate and in containing medullary barbatic acid (medulla K−, C−, KC+ yellow-orange, Pd−).
