Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lecidella turgescens Körb., Abhandl. Schles. Ges. Vaterl. Cult., Abth. Naturwiss. 2: 34 (1862).

=Lecidea littoralis C.Knight, Trans. N. Z. Inst. 8: 314 (1876). Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Bot. 1: 275 (1877).

Lecidea littoralis. Lectotype: New Zealand, sine loco [probably Wellington], Charles Knight – M [fide Hertel (1984: 431)].

Description : Thallus creamy whitish, areolate, areolae plane, smooth, forming spreading patches on rock; medulla I−. Prothallus grey, poorly-developed, visible at margins or absent. Apothecia immersed to sessile, rounded, occasionally auriculate, scattered, 1–3(–4.5) mm diam.; disc plane, black-brown, matt, blue-grey-pruinose, conspicuously folded in older fruits (rarely rust-coloured). Exciple 170–250 μm thick, ectal zone brown to brown-black; inner zone pale yellowish grey (fine crystals of confluentic acid). Hymenium 90–120 μm tall, colourless, I+ blue; epithecium brownish, 12–15 μm thick. Hypothecium colourless to pale brownish, 200–300 μm thick. Ascospores 14–22 × 5.5–8.5 μm. Pycnidia immersed. Conidia filiform, 16–18 (–20) × 0.8–1 μm.

Chemistry : Confluentic acid (major) and 2'- O -methylperlatolic and 2'- O -methylmicrophyllinic acids (Hertel 1985b: 326; Rambold 1989: 273).

N: Northland (Three Kings Is, Matai Bay, Taipa Bay, Cooper's Beach, Moturoa Is, Hen I., Great Barrier I., Little Barrier I.), Auckland (Piha), South Auckland (Cape Colville), Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi), Wellington (Kapiti I.). S: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes, Upper Cobb Valley, Roding Valley), Marlborough (Waitohi River S of Picton), Canterbury (Woolshed Hill). On exposed coastal rocks, and on rocks in bush, s.l. to 1200 m. A moderately common coastal lichen in northern New Zealand (Hertel 2001b: 122). Known also from Australia (Hertel 1984b, 1987b; Rambold 1989; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Exsiccati : Hertel (1985a: No. 155).

Illustrations : Knight (1876: pl. XI, fig. 3C; Knight 1877: pl. XXVII, fig. 3 – as Lecidea littoralis).

Poeltiaria turgescens is distinguished from P. corralensis by its chemistry; the different pigments in the exciple and epithecium, and the conidia. In New Zealand it has a distinctive northern distribution, and only in northern Nelson do the ranges of the two taxa overlap (Hertel 1985b: 311, fig. 3).