Flora of New Zealand Series

Holotype: New Zealand. Northland, Tokatoka, 10 miles S of Dargaville. Lat. 36ºS. On Cordyline australis, 11.i.1981. J.K. Bartlett – CHR 343222. Isotype – BM.

Description : Flora (1985: 552–553). See also Galloway (1997: 120–121).

N: Northland to Taranaki. S: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes) [map in Galloway (1997: 122, fig. 14)]. Epiphytic on coastal trees (Agathis australis, Beilschmiedia tarairi, Cordyline australis, Leptospermum scoparium, Lophomyrtus, Pseudopanax crassifolius, Quintinia serrata, Weinmannia silvicola), and on damp rock faces and coastal rocks.

Endemic

Illustration : Galloway (1997: 121, fig. 13).

Sticta babingtonii is characterised by: the corticolous/saxicolous habit; irregular to orbicular, rather coriaceous, brittle thalli; a green photobiont; a white medulla; densely developed, characteristic marginal phyllidia that are often minutely pubescent below; distinctive ochre-brown, orange, yellow or pinkish cyphellae on the lower surface; and colourless to pale yellow-brown, 7-septate, slightly curved ascospores, 45–55(–61) × 8–11 μm. It is possibly related to the Lord Howe endemic S. flavocyphellata D.J.Galloway (Galloway 1998e), which also has orange to ochre-brown cyphellae on the lower surface, but which has entire margins without phyllidia. It is distinguished from S. squamata and S. martinii in the colour of the cyphellae, nature of the lobes, and the colour of the lower surface. In early accounts of New Zealand lichens, S. babingtonii was recorded as S. variabilis, a palaeotropical phyllidiate species known from the Indian Ocean islands and East Africa (Swinscow & Krog 1988; Galloway 1995a), but not present in New Zealand. It is distinguished from S. babingtonii in the more delicate, friable lobes, the white cyphellae and by 3-septate ascospores.