Flora of New Zealand Series

P. sphinctrinum var. dilatatum Hue, Nouv. Archs Mus. Hist. nat. Paris sér. 4, 8: 267 (1906).

Thallus foliose-lobate, rosette-forming to spreading, ± closely attached, 5-10(-16) cm diam., without a prothallus. Lobes irregularly imbricate and wrinkled-plicate, apices incised or notched, much folded, margins thickened, tomentose, entire. Upper surface bright lettuce-green when wet, pale greenish-yellow to buff on storage, with a slight, white, marginal pubescence, smooth, matt, ± waxy, very slightly uneven at apices. Cephalodia mainly on lower surface, simple, globose becoming glomerulate, occasionally marginal and spreading to upper surface, placodioid-wrinkled-plicate, to 2 mm diam., blue-grey. Lower surface conspicuously striate with lower medullary hyphae arranged parallel to length of lobes, pale whitish at margins, becoming brown centrally. Apothecia sessile to subpedicellate, often numerous, to 2 mm diam., disc plane or subconcave, smooth, matt, brown or red-brown, epruinose, very rarely with a central thalline lobule, rarely gyrose-etched or fissured, margins thick, crenate- striate, obscuring disc in young fruits, thalline exciple very gnarled. Ascospores subglobose, 14-16 × 12-14 µm, epispore 2.5 µm thick verrucose, sometimes apiculate.

N: Wellington (Whakapapa R.). S: Nelson to Fiordland, mainly west of the Main Divide. St: (Wilson Bay).

Austral

P. patagonicum is similar to P. allorhizum but lacks the glomerulate isidia of that species, and the spores differ in the two species. Also its distribution, western North Island, Westland, Fiordland, Stewart I., is characteristic of austral species in New Zealand, rather than the northern coastal distribution of P. allorhizum.