Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lecidea leptocarpa Nyl. ex C.Bab. & Mitt. in J.D. Hooker, Fl. Tas. 2: 352 (1860)["1859"].

=Lecidea blastenoides Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 224 (1941).

Lecidea blastenoides. Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Silver Peaks near Dunedin, on rock, iii.1934, J.S. Thomson T1164 [ZA 267] – W. Isotypes – BM, CHR 347016, OTA.

Description : Flora (1985: 224–225 – as Lecidea blastenoides). See also Rambold (1989: 247).

Chemistry : Cortex and medulla K−, C−, KC−, Pd−; containing confluentic acid (major), 2'- O -methylperlatolic acid (minor) and 2'- O -methylmicrophyllinic acid.

N: Northland (Little Barrier I.). Auckland (Waitakere coast, Rangitoto I.), South Auckland (Coromandel Peninsula), Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi), Hawke's Bay (Otupai Ra.),Wellington (Pahiatua Track, York Bay). S: Nelson (Mt Cobb, Tasman Mts, Lake Rotoiti, Dun Saddle), Canterbury (Bealey Spur, Woolshed Hill, Porter's Pass, Banks Peninsula, Mt Peel), Otago (Kidd's Bush Lake Hawea, Rock & Pillar Ra., Herbert, Silver Peak, Mt Charles and Hooper's Inlet, Otago Peninsula, Waitati, Flagstaff, Swampy Summit, Maungatua), Southland (West Dome, Aparima Valley). On rocks (both acidic and ultrabasic) in grassland and alongside tracks in bush, and on lava, typically as a pioneer on ±disturbed surfaces, common in urban areas on clay banks and cuttings, s.l. to 1500 m. A common saxicolous/terricolous lichen in New Zealand. Known also from E Australia, Tasmania, New Caledonia and China (Hertel 1984b, 1989b; Rambold 1989; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

?Palaeotropical

Exsiccati : Hertel (1990: No. 233).

Illustrations : Babington & Mitten (1959: 352, tab. CC, fig. C – as Lecidea leptocarpa); Rambold (1989: 254, fig. 25); Lumbsch et al. (2001a: 33).

Paraporpidia leptocarpa is characterised by: the large, often auriculate apothecia that may become rusty-red; the dark-brown hypothecium; blackish brown exciple and epithecium; the I+bluish hymenium; and the non-halonate ascospores, 10–18 × 5–8 μm.