Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Peltigera polydactyla var. dolichorhiza Nyl., Syn. meth. lich. 1 (2): 327 (1860).

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 363). See also Galloway (2000d: 13).

Chemistry : ±Tenuiorin, ±methyl gyrophorate, peltidactylin, dolichorrhizin, zeorin, hopane–7β, 22-diol.

N: Northland (Three Kings Is, Radar Bush, Kawerua, Poor Knights Is, Great Barrier I., Cuvier I.), Auckland (Waitakere Ra., Rangitoto I.), South Auckland (Hunua Ra., Maungatawhiri Coromandel Peninsula, Pirongia, Otorohanga, Mangaotaki Valley), Gisborne (Aniwaniwa), Hawke's Bay (Waikamaka), Wellington (Kaimanawa Ra, Ohakune, Manawatu Gorge, Tararua Ra., Kapiti I., Eastbourne). S: Nelson (Cobb Ridge, Lake Rotoiti, Westport), Westland (Greymouth, Lake Paringa, Haast Pass, Lichen Creek Waiatoto River), Marlborough (Mt Stokes, Wairau Valley), Canterbury (Lowry Peaks Ra., White Horse Hill), Otago (Mt Brewster, Aspiring Hut, Paradise, The Remarkables, Mt Benger, Blue Mts, Mt Cargill, Dunedin Botanic Gardens, Taieri Mouth), Southland (West Dome, McKinnon Pass, Lake Thomson, Spey River, Borland Bog, Lake Hauroko, Rowallan Burn, Awarua Bog). St: (Mt Anglem, Maori Beach, Moturau Moana, Oban, Glory Cove, Disappointment Cove Port Pegasus, Bald Cone) [map in Galloway (2000d: 14, fig. 4)]. On damp soil, among bryophytes, on the mossy bases of forest trees and tree ferns, on rotting logs in partial to deep shade; on clay banks, in gravel paths, in subalpine bogs, subalpine to high-alpine grasslands, and on mangroves in northern, coastal sites. It has an altitudinal range from s.l. to 1600 m. In alpine grasslands it is found at the base of tussocks, where shade and humidity are high. A pantropical and oceanic species widely distributed in the Pacific from Hawai'i and Java to Australia and New Zealand (Magnusson & Zahlbruckner 1943: 96; Zahlbruckner & Mattick 1956: 446; Galloway 1985a; Filson 1996; McCarthy 2003c, 2006) also in Africa and South and Central America (Swinscow & Krog 1988; Vitikainen 1996).

Pantropical

Illustrations : Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 117, pl. 14b); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 97, 113); McCarthy & Malcolm (2004: 55).

Peltigera dolichorhiza is characterised by: the terricolous/muscicolous habit; a glabrous, glossy upper surface, often wrinkled or dimpled; linear–elongate to rather irregular lobes, with crisped, ascending margins without phyllidia; pale to dark, narrow to broad, slightly raised veins below, with scattered, long, slender, simple to fasciculate, pale-buff to dark-brown or black rhizines. It has a complex chemistry dominated by hopane triterpenoids. It is distinguished from P. polydactylon by the longer, more slender rhizines and the absence of marginal phyllidia or lobules; and from P. nana by its thicker, more glossy, coriaceous thallus, narrower lobes, and narrower, raised veins and longer rhizines.