Flora of New Zealand Series

Description : Thallus inconspicuous, immersed in substratum, white to pale-grey, scurfy, to somewhat verruculose, spreading in irregular rosettes 1–5(–9) cm diam. Apothecia clustered centrally, sessile or sunk in pits in substratum, (0.3–)0.4–1.5(–2) mm diam., disc dark reddish brown to black, usually densely blue-grey pruinose; exciple black, often more densely pruinose than disc and then grey-white, not or slightly raised, at length becoming excluded, to 50 μm thick. Hymenium (65–)70–100(–110) μm tall. Hypothecium colourless. Asci 60–85 × 14–18 μm, 110- to 200-spored. Ascospores simple, colourless, 3–5 × 1.5–2 μm.

N: Northland (Avoca near Dargaville). S: Marlborough (Kaikoura), Canterbury (Weka Pass, Nape Nape, Mt Somers), Otago (Ngapara, Millers Flat, Lawrence, Dunedin), Southland (Castle Rock). Sarcogyne regularis is a widespread and variable species with a wide ecological amplitude. It occurs on a variety of calcareous substrata, from calcareous sandstone to soft, weathered limestone, concrete (an early coloniser of concrete blocks laid as paving, usually at the edges, often associated with Caloplaca citrina), footpaths (where it can be very common and well-developed), mortar, and walls, mostly in lichen-poor communities. (It was first discovered in New Zealand by the late Dr James Murray on his concrete path in Dunedin in 1961.) Still very poorly known in New Zealand, but probably widely distributed on both man-made and natural basicolous substrata. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, the Arctic, Asia, North and South America and Australia (Hertel 1971a; Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Esslinger & Regan 1995; Filson 1996; Scholz 2000; Coppins 2002b; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Wirth (1987: 431; 1995b: 845); Dobson (1992: 307; 2000: 352; 2005: 400); Brodo et al. (2001: 651, pl. 795); Lumbsch et al. (2001: 10).

Sarcogyne regularis is characterised by: an inconspicuous endolithic thallus; large lecideine apothecia with a plane black disc that is frequently blue-grey-pruinose; and multi-spored asci containing in excess of 100 simple, minute, ascospores.