Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Alectoria sarmentosa (Ach.) Ach. [=Lichen sarmentosus Ach.]

Description : Flora (1985: 4–5).

Alectoria, formerly included in the family Alectoriaceae (Eriksson & Hawksworth 1998), along with the genera Oropogon Th.Fr. (Esslinger 1989) and Sulcaria Bystrek (Brodo & Hawksworth (1977), is a widely distributed genus of eight species (Thell et al. 2004). Three of these are bipolar, three are circumboreal and widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, with the genus as a whole showing its greatest diversity in western North America (Brodo & Hawksworth 1977). One species is known from New Zealand. Asci and hamathecia in Alectoria are similar to those in Menegazzia (Thell et al. 1995). Recent molecular studies have shown that the Alectoriaceae is derived from the family Parmeliaceae, and should correctly become a synonym of the Parmeliaceae (Mattsson & Wedin 1999). Alectoria is therefore included in the family Parmeliaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005).