Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Pannaria subimmixta C.Knight, Trans. N. Z. Inst. 12: 369 (1880).

=Pannaria holospoda Nyl., Lich. Nov. Zel.: 49 (1888).

Lectotype: New Zealand, Wellington, Charles Knight, ex Herb. J.M.Crombie – BM [fide Galloway (1985a: 335)].

Pannaria holospoda. Lectotype: New Zealand. Otago, in crevices of mica slate rocks, Dunedin, 6.xi.1861, W.L. Lindsay – H-NYL 31226 [fide Galloway (1985a: 335)].

Description : Flora (1985: 335 – as Pannaria subimmixta). See also Jørgensen & Galloway (1992b: 270).

Chemistry : Occasionally ursolic acid and a UV+ yellow pigment.

N: Northland (Three Kings Is, Russell, Hen I., Little Barrier I., Great Barrier I.), Auckland (Cornwall Park), South Auckland (Kauaeranga Gorge near Thames, Waikawau Bay Coromandel Peninsula, Lake Rotomahana, Whale I.), Wellington (Raetihi). S: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes), Marlborough (Queen Charlotte Sound), Canterbury (Banks Peninsula), Otago (Bendigo, Raggedy Ra. N of Alexandra, Saddle Hill, Dunedin, Taieri Mouth). St: (Thule, Paterson Inlet). On rock, friable greywacke clays or on clay banks. Often associating with mosses and squamules of Cladonia, in open, well-lit, mainly coastal habitats, in forest or on roadside cuttings; and with tufts of mosses, protecting and consolidating old mortar in archaeological ruins in various sites in Central Otago. Also in eastern Australia (Jørgensen & Galloway 1992b; McCarthy 2003c, 2006) and recently recorded also from South Africa (Table Mountain) and southern South America where it is rare (Jørgensen 2002e, 2003a).

?Palaeotropical

Illustrations : Knight (1880: pl. XII, fig. 9 – as Pannaria subimmixta); Jørgensen & Galloway (1992b: 269, fig. 94D).

Fuscopannaria subimmixta is characterised by: the terricolous/saxicolous habit; the very prominent thalline exciple and dark discs of the apothecia; and the white-pruinose margins of the sometimes nearly cylindrical lobes of the thallus. It is rather variable in form, from solitary, flat, little-divided squamules to ±imbricate, digitately divided squamules with almost isidia-like lobes. The upper surface on specimens from exposed habitats is smooth, subnitid and brownish, while specimens from shaded habitats are matt and olivaceous-grey. The apothecial discs vary in colour from brown to black, being darker in more exposed habitats.