Cladia aggregata (Sw.) Nyl.
Lichen aggregatus Sw., Nova gen. sp. pl.: 147 (1788).
For additional synonymy see Filson loc. cit., (1981).
Primary thallus, small lobulate-papillate, evanescent. Pseudopodetia dying at base, corticate, glossy or matt, 0.5-15 cm tall, robust, slender, or filiform, densely branched, branching dichotomous often sympodial, spreading, erect or curving, sterile branches terminated by 1-3 (usually 2) blunt spines, pale, dark or reddish-brown to blackish or pale yellowish to straw-coloured or pale greenish, rigid, horny when dry, flaccid when wet, walls perforate, perforations round to elliptic, varying in number, fertile pseudopodetia much thicker and taller than sterile pseudopodetia, usually more perforate and more branched towards apex. Medulla thin, white, rarely farinose, Apothecia terminal on branches of erect, fertile pseudopodetia, lecideine, 0.15-0.4 mm diam., disc subconcave to plane, dull brownish-black to black, margins entire, flexuose, Ascospores 12-15 × 4-5 µm. Chemistry: Cortex K±, Pd, ±. Barbatic, fumarprotocetraric (±), norstictic (±) and stictic (±) acids.
N: Three Kings Is to Wellington. S: Nelson to Southland. St: A: C: Very widely distributed and common, s.l. to 2000 m. On soil in grassland, among mosses on forest floor or on lower part of tree boles, occasionally on fence posts. Tolerant of both very dry and very wet habitats.
Palaeotropical
C. aggregata is probably the most widely distributed and also the most polymorphic lichen in New Zealand. One can observe a continuous series of biotypes between tall and dwarf, robust and slender, dark brown and pale yellowish-green, perforate and imperforate, sympodial or equally dichotomous. A majority of forms are K-, but K+ forms are not rare.
