Spilonema dendroides
Holotype: New Zealand. Stewart I., Port Pegasus. On Podocarpus hallii [=P. cuniinghamii] bark, in Dacrydium-Weinmannia forest, 1927, G. Einar Du Rietz 223a – UPS.
Description : Flora (1985: 538).
S: Canterbury (Arthur's Pass). St: (Port Pegasus). On bark of Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides (among mosses) and on Podocarpus cunninghamii. Known also from Alaska (Henssen 1981) and from British Columbia (Brodo & Tønsberg 1994: 1). In the latter locality it co-occurs with other humid-locality cyanolichens such as Erioderma sorediatum and Polychidium contortum.
? Circum-Pacific
Illustrations : Henssen (1963d: tab. 24D; 1981: 141, fig. 1; 142, fig. 3E–G).
Spilonema dendroides is characterised by: the corticolous habit; the delicately filiform, dichotomously divided, bluish to blackish branches (×10 lens); and with Hyphomorpha as photobiont (Henssen 1963d: 11, fig. 1C). It resembles a small, delicate form of Polychidium.