Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. North I., Wellington, NW Ruahine limestone plateau, 1200 m, 1983, J.K. Bartlett 25905 (BM).

Description : Thallus creamish fawn, grey-brown or greyish, continuous to areolate, uneven, warted or hummocky, 1–4 cm diam., on soil, mosses or plant debris (occasionally on Cladonia squamules). Apothecia urceolate, common, crowded, disc 0.2–0.8(–1) mm diam., black, ±pruinose. Proper exciple swollen, inflexed, concolorous with thallus, often puckered, or plicate. Hymenium 120–150(–175) μm tall, hyaline. Hypothecium 10 μm thick, colourless, Paraphyses 1–1.5 μm thick, simple, unbranched. Asci cylindrical to clavate, unitunicate, 90–140 × 15–35 μm, without an apical tholus, 8-spored. Ascospores uniseriate in ascus, brown, muriform, ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal, 19.5–30 × 5–14 μm.

Chemistry : Cortex K+ yellow to red, C+ red, Pd−; containing lecanoric (major), diploschistesic acid (tr.) and orsellinic acid (tr.).

N: Auckland (Whatipu), South Auckland (20 km SW of Te Awamutu), Wellington (Ruapehu, Kaimanawa Ra., Ruahine Ra. Rimutaka Ra.), Hawke's Bay (Kaweka Ra.). S: Nelson (Kakapo Peak, Mt Cobb, Cobb Valley), Canterbury (Mackenzie Country), Otago (Dredgeburn, Central Otago mountains, Cromwell, Alexandra, Teviot Valley), Southland (Homer Cirque, Fiordland, Waituna Lagoon). Mainly E of the Main Divide. On soil, mosses, plant debris and occasionally Cladonia squamules, in rather dry habitats (often in dryish underhangs in alpine areas). Common on dry, denuded grasslands of the inland lake basins where it forms characteristic "cow pats" on exposed, sandy soil, together with Siphula coriacea and terricolous species of Xanthoparmelia (X. molliuscula, X. reptans, X. semiviridis). Also known from Australia, Tasmania, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Easter I., India, Nepal, Indonesia, Madagascar, East Africa and South Africa (Lumbsch 1987, 1989; Pant & Upreti 1993; Guderley & Lumbsch 1996; Aptroot 2002e; Lumbsch & Elix 2003; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Palaeotropical

Illustrations : Lumbsch (1987: 608, fig. 1A); Guderley & Lumbsch (1996: 283, fig. 8D).

Diploschistes muscorum ssp. bartlettii is distinguished from the Northern Hemisphere taxon D. muscorum ssp. muscorum, by its higher hymenium, the broader, consistently 8-spored asci, and a Southern Hemisphere distribution.