Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lichen rupestris Scop., Fl. carniol. ed. 2, 1: 396 (1772).

Description : Flora (1985: 418–419).

Chemistry : Disc K+ purple; containing parietin, emodin, teloschistin, fallacinal and parietinic acid.

N: Auckland (Henderson). S: Canterbury (Castle Hill), Southland (Sharks Tooth, Springhills near Forest Hill). Common on calcareous paving stones in and around Auckland, elsewhere on limestone. Still very poorly known and collected in New Zealand. It should be searched for on limestone and other basicolous substrata such as mortar, cement, asbestos, concrete, and calcareous sandstone. In the Northern Hemisphere it is an important indicator of calcareous substrata and is often frequent in urban environments (Nimis 1993: 573). Known from Great Britain, Europe, the Canary Is, Scandinavia, Greenland, Svalbard, the Balkans, Asia, North America, and Tasmania (Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Hafellner 1995c; Hansen 1995; Elvebakk & Hertel 1997; Scholz 2000; Brodo et al. 2001; Llimona & Hadun 2001; Coppins 2002b; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Kainz 2004b; Kainz & Rambold 2004: 294; Santesson et al. 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Wirth (1987: 392; 1995b: 774); Hertel & Rambold (1988: 299, fig. 13); Foucard (1990: fig. 270); Dobson (1992: 279, 280; 2000: 323; 2005: 364); Hansen (1995: 109); Brodo et al. (2001: 586, pl. 708); Lumbsch et al. (2001: 21).

Protoblastenia rupestris is characterised by: the saxicolous (basicolous substrata) habit; the scurfy, areolate, greenish grey, grey-white to greenish brown or orange-grey thallus (often absent); sessile, to semi-immersed dull-orange, biatorine apothecia (K+ purple); and simple ascospores.