Steinera polymorpha
Holotype: New Zealand. Southland, Dusky Sound, in grassland 1000 m, Cascade Cove, 10.ii.1969 [not 1967 as given in Henssen & James 1982: 246], D.J. Galloway s.n. – BM. Isotypes – AK 191959, CHR.
Description : Flora (1985: 540).
N: Taranaki (Mt Taranaki). S: Canterbury (Avalanche Peak, Mt Cassidy Arthur's Pass), Otago (Olivine Ledge near Föhn Lakes, above Olivine River), Southland (Gertude Valley, Dusky Sound above Cascade Cove). St: (Mt Anglem, Mt Allen). In subalpine to alpine grassland, on mosses over rocks, associating with Cladia inflata, Placopsis macrophthalma, P. murrayi, P. subgelida, Siphula complanata and S. fragilis.
Endemic
Illustrations : Henssen & James (1982: 236, fig. 7; 240, fig. 12C; 241, fig. 13C; 242; fig. 14B; 243, fig. 15C; 247, fig. 18; 248, fig. 19).
Steinera polymorpha is a species of rather variable morphology. The centre of the thallus is variously contorted and ±deeply fissured, but the margins are effigurate-lobate as in other species in the genus. It most closely resembles S. sorediata in ascospore morphology, but it lacks soredia and the apothecia remain ±immersed in the thallus whereas in S. sorediata apothecia are conspicuously emergent with a prominent, sorediate margin. The pycnidia are characteristic and appear similar to those found in Dermatocarpon luridum. The inner part of the pycnidium is ±filled with proliferating conidiogenous cells bearing conidia laterally. The pycnidia do not have convoluted walls, a characteristc feature of S. radiata.
