Flora of New Zealand Series

C. cuneatum Stirton, Proc. phil. Soc. Glasg. 10: 292 (1877).

Coniophyllum colensoi Müll. Arg., Bull. Soc. r. Bot. Belg. 31: 23 (1892).

Sphaerophoron polycarpum Colenso, T.N.Z.I. 16: 361 (1884).

Lectotype: Chatham Islands. Travers, BM!

Coniophyllum colensoi. Lectotype: New Zealand. Sine loco. W. Colenso 12/85, BM!

Sphaerophoron polycarpum. Lectotype: New Zealand. Sine loco. W. Colenso 12/85, BM!

Fig. 5

Thallus foliose, lobate, spreading to ± subascendent, loosely attached to 4 cm diam. Lobes 5-10 mm long and 3-6 mm wide, margins entire, sinuous to ± notched or incised. Upper surface smooth, matt, green to yellowish- or greyish-green, isidia, maculae, pseudocyphellae and soredia absent. Medulla white, to 150 µm thick, of ± loosely woven, anastomosing hyphae, cells 2.5 µm diam. Lower surface pale whitish, smooth to somewhat longitudinally ridged and wrinkled, rhizines absent. Apothecia marginal on small lobules c. 1 mm long, 1-15 per frond, mostly slightly displaced to ventral surface, hemispherical, 0.5 mm diam., disc convex, black or brown with a thin pale thalline margin at base. Hypothecium dark brown, 200-250 µm thick. Paraphyses very thin, entangled, simple. Ascospores globose irregularly ellipsoid, brown, 4-6.0 µm, thin-walled forming a well-developed mazaedium.

N: South Auckland (Te Aroha), Taranaki (Mt Egmont), Wellington (Ruahine Ra.). S: Nelson (Lake Rotoroa), Canterbury (Nina Valley, S. of Lewis Pass), Southland (Secretary I.). Ch: On tree bark and tree roots especially those of Nothofagus fusca, or mossy rocks in moderate to deep shade.

Endemic

C. cuneatum is separated from species of Sphaerophorus by the foliose thallus with marginal apothecia on short supporting lobules. When sterile, thalli are difficult to segregate from well-developed Sphaerophorus scrobiculatus, but fertile plants are immediately distinguished. It is still very poorly collected in New Zealand.

In his description of S. polycarpum, the only lichen he described, Colenso [ T.N.Z.I 16: 361 (1884)] appends the following habitat notes "...On trunks of aged Fagus trees in large patches, projecting horizontally, sub-alpine forests Ruahine mountain range, 1846-1852; always barren, but near Norsewood, bearing fruit plentifully, 1883..." The lectotype material of Colenso's taxon (BM) is the same as that seen and named by Müller Argoviensis as Coniophyllum colensoi.