Flora of New Zealand Series

=Ramalina myrioclada Müll.Arg., Flora 66: 20 (1883).

=Ramalina allanii de Lesd., Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 84: 283 (1937).

Ramalina allanii. Lectotype: New Zealand. North I., Feilding, Merry Hill. s.d., [H.H.] Allan s.n. – CHR 343969 [fide Blanchon et al. (1996a: 68)].

Description : Flora (1985: 500–501 – as Ramalina myrioclada). See also Blanchon et al. (1996a: 68).

Chemistry : Usnic acid.

K: (Raoul. I.) N: Northland to Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty (Whale I.) [map in Bannister et al. (2004: 126, fig. 3)]. Common on northern offshore islands, with single records from Feilding and Wellington Harbour. Known also from eastern Australia where it is found in coastal sites from southern Queensland to New South Wales (Stevens 1987: 154–155; McCarthy 2003c, 2006), from Hawai'i, the Galapagos Is, Guam and Norfolk I. (Elix & McCarthy 1998: 237). Mainly on bark of Metrosideros excelsa and Avicennia marina var. resinifera, occasionally also on Agathis australis, Kunzea ericoides and Pseudopanax. On offshore islands and coastal headlands R. australiensis also grows on rock (including andesite and greywacke).

Australasian

Exsiccati : Vězda (1984: No. 1995 – as Ramalina myrioclada).

Illustrations : Stevens (1987: 153, pl. 7, fig. 1; 214, pl. 13, fig. 1); Blanchon et al. (1996a: 66, fig. 6A, 82, fig. 8A).

Ramalina australiensis is characterised by: the corticolous/saxicolous habit; long, narrow branches with denser branching towards apices; apothecia, when present, lateral; no chondroid strands in the medulla; and no secondary compounds in the medulla.