Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Parmelia pictada Essl. in C.F. Culberson, W.L. Culberson & T.L. Esslinger, Bryologist 80: 131 (1977).

≡Neofuscelia pictada (Essl.) Essl., Mycotaxon 7: 52 (1978).

Holotype: New Zealand. Marlborough, Mt Tapuenuku [= Tapuae-o-uenuku], 2128 m, J.S. Thomson T1520 – CHR 238703. Isotype – OTA.

Description : Flora (1985: 307 – as Neofuscelia pictada).

Chemistry : Cortex K−, HNO3+ dark blue-green; medulla K−, C−, KC−, Pd−, UV−; containing divaricatic acid.

S: Marlborough (Inland Kaikoura Ra.), Canterbury (Foggy Peak, Torless Ra.), Otago (Kakanui Mountains, Mt Ida, Mt St Mary). Alpine or subalpine on rock east of the Main Divide.

Endemic

Xanthoparmelia pictada is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; its linear, often convex lobes and its sparse, clustered rhizines; large areas of the lower surface are devoid of rhizines. Within the rhizine clusters the individuals sometimes fuse together and especially in the more closely appressed thalli may lose their integrity altogether, then appearing as umbilicoid holdfasts. X. bulfiniana (barbatic acid), X. martinii (physodic acid) and X. peloloba (alectoronic acid UV+ blue-white) have all similar morphologies to X. pictada but give KC+ spot tests. X. adpicta has elongate lobes but they are flat and more evenly rhizinate, and it has stenosporic acid in the medulla. The variable species X. pulla should also be carefully distinguished. It is more regularly rhizinate, has flatter and less elonage lobes and is paler – it is also coastal and not alpine–subalpine.