Siphula elixii
Description : Thallus fruticose, lobate, very brittle and fragile, forming spreading mats, up to 15 cm diam., on peaty soils or gravels. Lobes flattened, ±isobilateral, erect or ascending, irregularly branched and lacerate, undulate, entangled, pale greenish grey to fawn-brown (turning pale pinkish brown on storage in herbarium), usually ±pale reddish brown towards apices, mostly to 10 mm long (rarely to 25 mm), 3–8 mm wide at base, tapering to 1–(3–5) mm at apices, 0.10–0.15 mm thick. Surface matt on ventral surface, minutely scabrid and areolate to minutely to roughly papillate (×10 lens) on dorsal surface, rarely ±smooth. Margins and apices entire or minutely irregularly crenulate, not or only very slightly thickened, occasionally somewhat glossy and a deeper reddish brown than the rest of the lobe, commonly fracturing. Rhizomorphs pale fawn-brown, terete, tapering, 0.10–0.75 mm wide at point of attachment to lobes, intricately branched and forming a fine, entangled mat to 25 mm long.
Chemistry : Cortex K−, C−, KC± reddish (inconclusive), Pd−, UV−; containing lobaric acid (major) and conlobaric acid (tr.).
S: Nelson (Denniston Plateau). On quartzite gravels and damp, peaty soils, 750–950 m. Still very poorly known in New Zealand. Known also from SW Tasmania (Kantvilas 1994a: 20; 2002a; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).
Australasian
Illustrations : Kantvilas (1994a: 18, figs 1, 2).
Siphula elixii is characterised by: the terricolous habit; the flattened, fragile lobes which are generally rather scabrid-areolate to minutely and roughly papillate on the dorsal surface; pale greenish grey to fawn-brown or pinklish brown colour, the margins somewhat deeper reddish brown; and the presence of lobaric acid, which distinguishes it from the related taxa S. foliacea and S. fragilis. The current name for this taxon is Parasiphula elixii (Kantvilas) Kantvilas & Grube ube & Kantvilas 2006: 246).
