Pseudoparmelia pruinata
Parmelia pruinata Müll. Arg., Flora 66: 46 (1883).
Thallus rosette-forming to irregularly spreading, 1-5 cm diam., lobes rather narrow, 1-3 mm wide, sublinear-elongate, highly dissected, margins sinuous, shining, black. Upper surface plane to convex, pale greyish-green to greyish-white or fawnish, shining, waxy, shallowly wrinkled-faveolate and faintly maculate, granular-white-pruinose at lobe apices and margins. Lower surface black, with a narrow, brown, naked marginal zone. Rhizines black, simple, sparse to dense. Apothecia common, pedicellate, 2-4 mm diam., disc dark brown, shining, often pruinose, margins thin, entire, not crenulate, or inflexed, thalline exciple smooth, shining, not verrucose. Ascospores 10-12 × 7-8 µm. Pycnidia numerous, punctiform, black. Chemistry: Cortex K+ yellow; medulla K-, C+ rose, KC+ rose, Pd-. Lecanoric acid and atranorin.
N: South Auckland (Pio Pio) to Wellington. S: Nelson (Lake Rotoiti) to Banks Peninsula and Peel Forest. On the bark of trees and shrubs (often a canopy species), very rarely on rocks, in drier areas mainly east of the Main Divide in South I.
Australasian
Small, rosette-forming, most often found on twigs of Discaria, Hymenanthera and Phyllocladus. Distinguished from P. subalbicans by the black lower surface, the thinner texture, the presence of pruina on lobe margins and the thin, entire thalline margin of the fruits.
