Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Lecidella viridans (Flot.) Körb. [=Lecidea sabuletorum var. viridans Flot.]

Description : Flora (1985: 242).

Lecidella is a genus of c. 50 species (Kirk et al. 2001; Knoph & Leuckert 2004) all except one of which are lichenised and occur on exposed stone, bark, wood or rarely on decaying vegetation (including other lichens). It is included in the family Lecanoraceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005) and is characterised by: green-black or green-brown pigments in the epithecium; sessile, black or dark red-brown, lecideine apothecia; Lecidella -type asci [known only from Lecidella (Knoph & Leukert 2004: 309)]; lax simple paraphyses with scarcely swollen apices; simple, thick-walled ascospores without a perispore; and a secondary chemistry characterised by the abundant occurrence of chlorinated xanthones (C+ orange). Taxa occur from polar to tropical regions. Saxicolous taxa are discussed in several recent treatments (Rambold 1989; Knoph 1990; Leuckert et al. 1990b, 1992; Knoph & Leuckert 1994, 2000, 2004; Knoph et al. 1995a, 1995b) and non-saxicolous taxa by Tønsberg (1992), Knoph et al. (1995b), and Knoph & Leuckert (1997, 2004). In the Flora (Galloway 1985a: 242–243; 636–637) five taxa were discussed, but since then several more species have been added to the list of taxa known from New Zealand, and more detailed chemical and anatomical data on these are now available (Hertel 1983, 1984b, 1985b, 1989; Rambold 1989; Knoph 1990; Knoph et al. 1999). The present account refers to this later work and abstracts pertinent anatomical and chemical data to add to the earlier Flora accounts. Nine taxa are here recorded from New Zealand.