Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Verrucaria exocha Nyl., Flora 52: 125 (1869).

≡Clathroporina exocha (Nyl.) Müll.Arg., Bull. Herb. Boissier 2, App. 1: 93 (1894).

=Porina endochyrsea C.Bab. in J.D. Hooker, Fl. Nov. Zel. 2: 306 (1855) non Mont. [Annls Sci. nat Bot. sér. 2, 19: 79 (1843)].

≡Clathroporina endochrysea (C.Bab.) Müll.Arg., Bull. Herb. Boissier 2, App. 1: 93 (1894).

=Verrucaria wellingtonii Stirt., Rep. Trans. Glasgow Soc. Field Nat. 1: 20 (1873).

≡Thelenella wellingtonii (Stirt.) Stirt., Trans. N. Z. Inst. 6: 241 (1874).

≡Clathroporina wellingtonii (Stirt.) Müll.Arg., Bull. Herb. Boissier 2, App. 1: 93 (1894).

=Porina pustulosa Kremp., Verhandl. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien 26: 459 (1876).

=Verrucaria perfragilis Nyl., Lich. Nov. Zel.: 128 (1888).

=Clathroporina saxatilis Zahlbr., Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien math.-naturwiss. Kl. 104: 254 (1941).

Holotype: New Zealand. Sine loco [probably Wellington], 1867, Charles Knight s.n. – H-NYL 1591.

Verrucaria wellingtonii. Holotype: New Zealand. Near Wellington, Tinakori Hills, 1873, J. Buchanan s.n. – GLAM. Isotypes – BM, WELT [material in Buchanan's herbarium comprises two packets, one containing three separate collections, all labelled by Buchanan: (1) "78 Verrucaria wellingtonii sp. nov. Feby/73. Tinakori Hills, Wellington"; (2) "78 same as 56, Verrucaria (Thelonella [sic] wellingtonii sp. nov., Tinakori Hill Wellington, March'73 – 161/166 Augst/73"; (3) "Verrucaria wellingtonii sp. nov. – with an annotation by Charles Knight "Porina endochrysa (Mont.) vide Plate XXVII Flora New Zealand"; (4) "56 Verrucaria wellingtonii n.s." annotated by Charles Knight, as in (3) above] .

Porina pustulosa. Holotype: New Zealand. Sine loco [probably Wellington], Charles Knight s.n. – M 123–80/2.

Verrucaria perfragilis. Lectotype: New Zealand, on bark and corticolous hepatics, R. Helms 22 – H-NYL 1929 [fide McCarthy (1995a: 330)]. Isolectotype – H-NYL 1930.

Clathroporina saxatilis. Holotype: New Zealand. Northland, Hen and Chicken Is, Big Chick I., on coastal rocks, L.B. Moore ZA 262 – W. Isotype – CHR 379756.

Description : Flora (1985: 124–125 – as Clathroporina exocha). See also McCarthy (1995a: 330–331; 2001f: 127).

N: Northland (Three Kings Is) to Wellington. S: Nelson (Cobb Ridge), Marlborough (Chetwode Is, d'Urville I.). On bark of trees and shrubs (Agathis australis, Beilschmiedia taraire, B. tawa, Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, Litsaea calicaris etc.), and on rocks in coastal forest in shade. It is a robust epiphyte, often overgrowing corticolous bryophytes and forming colonies to 20 cm or more in diam. Known also from Norfolk I., northern Queensland, Raratonga and the Cook Is (McCarthy 1995a: 334; 2000c: 23; 2001e: 127; 2003c; 2003d: 44, fig. 5).

Palaeotropical

Illustrations : Knight (1876: pl. X, fig. 14; 1877: pl. XXXVIII, fig. 4 – as Porina endochrysa); Nylander (1888: tab. 1, fig. 2 – as Verrucaria exocha); McCarthy (1995a: 331, fig. 2; 332, fig. 3); Flora of Australia 58A (2001: Frontispiece; 102, pls 49, 50).

Porina exocha is characterised by: the corticolous to saxicolous habit; the thick, wide-spreading, olive-green to yellowish green or buff thallus, raised in irregular mounds and often peeling away from substratum; immersed perithecia in raised tubercles; colourless, ellipsoidal, muriform ascospores, 50–150 × 20–40 μm.