Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Santessoniella brunnea P.M.Jørg., N. Z. J. Bot. 37: 267 (1999).

Holotype: New Zealand. Canterbury, Cass Hill, ix.1981, P.M. Jørgensen 8469 – BG. Isotypes – CANL, CHR 528301.

Description : Thallus squamulose. Squamules small, 0.2–1 mm wide, blue-grey to brown, apically incised, imbricate, imbricating squamules which are surrounded by a single-layered cortex, enclosing the medullary hyphae branched reticulately around chains of Nostoc, forming a crust and spreading irregularly over substratum. Apothecia brown, 2–3 mm diam., common, adnate to immersed, at least initially and then with marginal squamules which disappear as the disc becomes convex, often forming complex, proliferating structures. Hymenium up to 200 μm tall, I+ blue-green rapidly turning brown-red. Subhymenium conspicuous, to 400 μm thick of densely interwoven hyphae. Asci with indistinct amyloid ring-structure. Ascospores simple, colourless, smooth, ellipsoidal, 10–15(–18) × 7–8 μm, apiculate.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

S: Marlborough (Branch River, headwaters of Gordon Stream), Canterbury (Cass Hill). Presently known from only two subalpine sites up to 1300 m, on soil amongst mosses. Still very poorly collected and probably of much wider occurrence than records show.

Endemic

Illustration : Jørgensen (1999a: 267, fig. 7 – as Santessoniella brunnea).

Austrella brunnea is superficially very similar to Pannaria pezizoides, a species of similar habitats in the Northern Hemisphere (Jørgensen 1978: 52–53), from which it is readily distinguished by the lack of a well-developed, persistent thalline margin to the apothecia as well as in both thalline and anatomical characters. The gelatinous, nearly homoiomerous thallus and its hemiamyloid hymenial reaction, at first led this species to be placed in Santessoniella (Jørgensen 1999a), and it was regarded as a vicariant of S. grisea (Hue) Henssen, a species of similar habitats in Japan (Henssen 1997: 86–87). However, it differs from this species in its browner, less coralloid thallus, and the smaller, smooth ascospores, and further Jørgensen (2004a) has recently shown that it is better accommodated in an independent genus segregated from Santessoniella.