Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Parmelia pulla Ach., Syn. meth. Lich.: 206 (1814)

≡Neofuscelia pulla (Ach.) Essl., Mycotaxon 7: 52 (1978).

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 308 – as Neofuscelia pulla). See also Elix (1994k: 79).

Chemistry : Cortex K−, HNO3+ pale to dark blue-green; medulla K−, C− or + rose, KC− or + rose, Pd−, UV−; containing stenosporic acid or divaricatic acid, with accessory perlatolic acid and occasionally acessory gyrophoric acid (see Elix 2002a).

N: Northland (Three Kings Is) to Wellington. S: Marlborough to Central Otago. Mainly coastal and northern on rock and soil. Occurring elsewhere in Europe, the Canary Is, Asia Minor, N and S Africa and Australia (Elix 1994k: 79; Giordani et al. 2003; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004; Elvebakk & Bjerke 2006).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Esslinger (1977b: 205, pl. 35, fig. 120 – as Parmelia pulla); Moberg & Holmåsen (1982: 93 – as P. pulla); Wirth (1987: 327 – as P. pulla); Flora of Australia 55 (1994: xv, fig. 20 – as Neofuscelia pulla); Eldridge & Tozer (1997: 41, fig. 4.21 – as N. pulla); Dobson (2000: 270 – as P. pulla; 2005: 279).

Xanthoparmelia pulla shows the widest spectrum of morphological variation in the genus (Esslinger 1977b: 136–138). Specimens vary continuously in habit from discrete, closely appressed rosettes to irregular and strongly pulvinate clumps. Lobes vary from relatively thin, narrow and sometimes linear to rather large and broadly rounded. Thallus colour and texture are equally variable, smooth and wrinkled combine variously with pale and dark. The lower surface is black and the species lacks isidia. See also X. glabrans and X. imitatrix. X. luteonotata differs in the pale-tan to brown lower surface.