Flora of New Zealand Series

=Teloschistes fasciculatus var. nodulosus Js.Murray, Trans. Roy. Soc. N. Z. 88: 206 (1960).

≡Teloschistes velifer f. nodulosa (Js.Murray) Filson, Muelleria 2: 81 (1969).

Holotype: "Nova Zelandia (insula meridionalis), Mount Maungatna [sic = Maungatua] prope Dunedin. Leg. Scott Thomson. Typus in herbario meo sub no. 10640" (Hillmann 1938: 177). [Hillmann's herbarium in Berlin was destroyed during the Second World War and the holotype of T. fasciculatus was lost. However, duplicate material from Jack Scott Thomson's Maungatua collection exists in Lincoln and Dunedin and these may be regarded as isotypes.] Isotypes: New Zealand. Otago, Mt Maungatua, head of Verterburn, on rock, J.S. ThomsonT357, [H 56] – CHR 166123, OTA 029703.

Teloschistes fasciculatus var. nodulosus. Holotype: New Zealand Canterbury, Ben Ohau Ra., 1828 m [6000 ft], x.1958, Mason 154! – OTA.

Description : Flora (1985: 567).

Chemistry : Thallus K+ purple; containing parietin (major) and minor amounts of teloschistin, fallacinal, and parietinic acid (Søchting 1997). Chemosyndrome A; parietin (major), fallacinal, emodin and erythroglaucin (Søchting & Frödén 2002).

S: Nelson (Dun Mountain), Marlborough (Molesworth), Canterbury (Mt St Patrick, Cass, Craigieburn Ra., Rocky Peak Banks Peninsula, Mistake Peak Godley Valley, Cass River, Tekapo, Mt Peel, Ben Ohau Ra.), Otago (Matukituki Valley, Mt Roy, The Remarkables, Old Man Ra., Alexandra, Oturehua, Poolburn Reservoir, Mt Ida, Umbrella Mts, Garvie Mts, Rock & Pillar Ra., Maungatua), Southland (Eyre Mts, Symmetry Peaks, Borland Saddle). A subalpine to high-alpine species on soil, among mosses and other lichens in crevices of rock outcrops, on both sunny and sheltered ledges of schist tors in Central Otago, and scrambling among branches of Melicytus alpinus at the base of rock outcrops in alpine grasslands, 800–2200 m, E of the Main Divide. One of the most conspicuous and colourful of alpine lichens. It associates with the following lichens: Bartletiella fragilis, Bryoria austromontana, Candelariella coralliza, Cladia aggregata, Degelia neozelandica, Lecidella elaeochroma, Menegazzia castanea, Parmelia signifera, P. sulcata, Physcia caesia, Pseudocyphellaria glabra, P. pickeringii, Siphula dissoluta, Stereocaulon caespitosum, Teloschistes velifer, Thamnolia vermicularis, Usnea torulosa, Umbilicaria cylindrica, U. decussata, U. hyperborea, U. polyphylla, U. subaprina, U. vellea, Usnea acromelana, U. ciliata, U. subcapillaris, Xanthoparmelia mougeotina, X. petriseda, X. scabrosa, Xanthoria elegans. Also known from Australia where it is recorded from New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria (Filson 1996; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Australasian

Illustrations : Filson (1969: 95, pl. 5, 107, pl. 11; as T. velifer f. nodulosa).

Exsiccati : Weber (1969: No. 236).

Teloschistes fasciculatus is characterised by: the saxicolous (subalpine to high-alpine) habit; thalli which form distinctive, pulvinate clumps 0.5–10(–12) cm diam. composed of prostrate to ±erect, narrow (0.2–1 mm) lobes which are flattened, laterally compressed to ±subterete to terete, corticate on both surfaces, somewhat gnarled and striate to ±smooth, tapering to sharp, blunt, ragged or spinulose apices. Lobes have marginal and terminal cilia, but only on the lower surface (but as the thallus often twists and turns, it is often difficult to determine which exactly is the lower surface!), and ±prominent marginal or submarginal, sessile or somewhat knobbly and protruding, to excavate soralia (±closely to widely scattered in terete branches) containing orange to yellow-green blastidious soredia. Juvenile thalli usually have blastidia (budding of small thallus fragments). It shows variation in size of hummocks; in the morphology of the lobes which can be terete (mature) to flattened (juvenile); in the size and density of both soralia and rhizines (both vary from sparse and widely scattered, to ±numerous); and in the colour of the lobes, which are generally whitish to pale-yellow at base to mustard-yellow to orange or orange-red at apices, with specimens from sheltered sites being pale-yellowish while specimens from exposed high-light habitats are orange-red. The holotype of T. fasciculatus var. nodulosus has both soralia and rhizines and, although having small lobes, is well within the range of variation shown by this species. It does not have the distinctive sail-like hooded sorediate lobes characteristic of T. velifer and in my opinion Filson (1969:81) was not justified in combining it as a form of this latter species. In very exposed sites specimens become very reduced in size and may be without rhizines; the small sorediate lobes then appear close to forms of Xanthoria candelaria.