Flora of New Zealand Series

Parmelia byrsea Ach., Meth. Lich.: 222 (1803).

Thallus foliose, lobate ± rosette-shaped, to 10 cm diam., corticolous. Lobes radiating, 25 mm long and 2-12 mm wide, margins thickened, rounded, sinuses circular often deeply incised. Upper surface brownish or olive-green to greyish or glaucous blue to blackish, darker centrally, strongly wrinkled, faveolate, plicate-ridged, minutely maculate (X 10 lens) or minutely wrinkled-faveolate, sometimes smooth and shining in parts. Lower surface woolly, black, densely rhizinate to margins. Rhizines very short, squarrosely branched, black or pale. Apothecia common, sessile, laminal or occasionally marginal, to 2.5 mm diam., disc plane, red-brown, shining, waxy, imperforate, without tomentum, margins thick, to 0.5 mm wide, minutely wrinkled, leathery. Ascospores 8 per ascus, colourless, ellipsoidal, 13-14 × 8-9 µm, with a thick epispore.

N: North Auckland, South Auckland, Hawke's Bay. In inland lowland localities in humid, low-light situations. Still very poorly known.

Palaeotropical