Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Endocarpon cinereum Pers., Annln Bot. 1: 28 (1794).

≡Dermatocarpon cinereum (Pers.) Th.Fr., Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Scient. Upsal. ser. 3, 3: 356 (1861).

Descriptions : Flora (1985: 155 – as Dermatocarpon cinereum); Breuss (1993b: 23; 2001a : 160–161).

S: Canterbury (Cass, Craigieburn Ra., Castle Hill, Godley Valley), Otago (Old Man Ra., Alexandra, Raggedy Ra., Upper Clutha Valley). On alpine and subalpine soils, often also on soils at base of limestone outcrops. A circumpolar-arctic species known from Europe, Scandinavia, the high Arctic, North America, South America (Breuss 1990a, 1990b, 1993a, 1995; Thomson 1987, 1989; Goward et al. 1994b; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Nimis & Martellos 2003), Turkey, Pakistan, Mongolia, Nepal (Breuss 1998a), New South Wales in Australia (Filson 1996; Breuss 2001a; McCarthy 2003c, 2006), Tierra del Fuego and the South Shetland Is (Søchting et al. 2004).

Bipolar

Illustrations : Thomson (1984: 211 – as Dermatocarpon cinereum); Breuss & Hansen (1988: 102, fig. 1A); Harada (1993a: 119, fig. 3C; 126, fig. 7A– B; 127, fig. 8); Goward et al. (1994b: 35, fig. 4A); Hansen (1995: 86); Dobson (2000: 104; 2005: 114).

Catapyrenium cinereum is characterised by: the terricolous habit; the small, finely incised, ±pruinose squamae commonly densely aggregated and forming a crust on the substratum. The dark, paraplectenchymatous lower cortex is also characteristic. It may be confused with C. daedaleum, which has rounder and thicker squamae that are less pruinose and lack a lower cortex (Breuss 1993a: 24).