Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. South I., Canterbury, Boyle River near Lewis Pass, on twigs of Leptospermum scoparium on terraces behind Boyle Lodge, growing with P. maculata, ix.1981, P.W. James s.n. – BM.

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 430–431 – as Pseudocyphellaria coerulescens). See also Galloway (1988a: 174–175).

Chemistry : Pulvinic acid, pulvinic dilactone, calycin, 2α,3β-diacetoxystictane, 2α,3β-diacetoxystictane-22-ol, stictane-3β,22α-diol (tr.), 2α-acetoxystictane-3β,22α-diol, 3β-acetoxystictane-2α,22α-diol and stictane-2α,3β,22α-triol, pseudocyphellarin A and 2'- O -methylpseudocyphellarin A.

S: Nelson (Takaka Hill, Lake Rotoiti), Canterbury (Boyle River), Otago (Tarras, Arrowtown) [map in Galloway (1988a: 176, fig. 85)]. On twigs and bark of Leptospermum scoparium in successional habitats, and on soil overlying schist rocks in open, Leptospermum shrubland. Also in E Australia (Galloway et al. 2001b: 66; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Illustration : Galloway (1988a: 174, fig. 84).

Pseudocyphellaria jamesii is characterised by: a small, orbicular thallus; short, narrow lobes; a maculate upper surface (×10 lens) without isidia or soredia; a yellow medulla; a cyanobacterial photobiont; and a chemistry dominated by pigments and stictane triterpenoids. For differences between P. jamesii and the southern South American species P. coerulescens see Galloway (1992c: 80).