Flora of New Zealand Series

Description : Thallus erect, 0.8–3.5 cm long, from a well-delimited holdfast, branching palmate or irregular. Branches 1–3.5(–5) mm wide, apices blunt and usually split, the margins separating. Surface matt, smooth to wrinkled, pale green to grey-green, often reticulately ridged. Soralia marginal and apical, developing with the separation of the upper and lower surfaces. Apothecia not seen in New Zealand material.

Chemistry : Usnic and divaricatic acids, ±triterpenoids.

N: Northland (Omanaia River, Taupo Bay, Castle Peak; Poor Knights Is, Tokatoka), Auckland, South Auckland (Kaiaua, Firth of Thames; near Barryville, Coromandel Peninsula, Waikato), Wellington (Wanganui, Manawatu). S: Otago (coastal). Ch.: (Te Whanga Lagoon, Wharekauri) [map in Bannister et al. (2004: 130, fig. 6)]. On Avicennia marina var. resinifera, Metrosideros excelsa, Podocarpus totara and old peach trees (Prunus persica), occasionally on coastal rocks and driftwood. Known also from coastal Britain and Ireland, Europe (W Mediterranean) N along Atlantic coast to Norway, and S to Macaronesia, South Africa, Australia, California, Mexico and South America (Stevens 1987; Nimis 1993; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Kashiwadani & Nash 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Stevens (1987: 153, pl. 7, figs 3, 4); Blanchon et al. (1996a: 82, fig. 8D); Dobson (2000: 335; 2005: 382).

Ramalina canariensis is characterised by: the corticolous (rarely lignicolous/saxicolous) habit; palmate or irregular branching, the branches soft, splitting marginally as well as on lower surface to release soredia.