Flora of New Zealand Series

Lichen elegans Link, Annln Naturg. Göttingen 1: 37 (1791).

Thallus rosette-forming to irregularly spreading, often eroded or lacking in parts, to 6 cm diam., saxicolous. Lobes radiate, contiguous or partly imbricate and loosely attached, convex or subconvex, sparingly branched, c. 1 mm wide, margins crenate to subsinuous. Upper surface orange-red or red, smooth, matt, wrinkled or minutely faveolate or pitted centrally, without isidia, maculae, pseudocyphellae or soredia. Apothecia central, occasional, to 1.2 mm diam., disc red, margins persistent, rather thin, concolorous with thallus. Ascospores 10-13 × 6-8 µm.

S: Marlborough (Mt Tapuaenuku) to Otago (Old Man Ra.). East of the Main Divide from the Kaikoura Ranges to the Central Otago Mountains. On alpine or subalpine rocks, often locally common on mainly south-facing rock outcrops, often in crevices in sheltered overhangs, 700-2000 m.

Bipolar

A very characteristic species, visually striking because of its bright orange-red, rosette-forming thallus. It forms vivid splashes of colour on rock, often among yellow-green patches of Rhizocarpon geographicum.