Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Lichen pulmonarius L. [=Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.]. For details of typification see Yoshimura & Hawksworth (1970), Yoshimura (1971: 255) and Jørgensen et al. (1994a: 343).

Description : Flora (1985: 256).

Lobaria is a mainly temperate, widely distributed genus of c. 60 named taxa (Kirk et al. 2001), included in the family Lobariaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). It is present in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres and is most speciose in Asia (Yoshimura 1971), and tropical South America (Yoshimura 1984, 1998a, 1998b; Yoshimura & Arvidsson 1994). North American taxa are discussed by Jordan (1973), East African species by Swinscow & Krog (1988), British and European species by Purvis (1992b) and Nimis (1993) respectively, and New Guinean taxa by Sipman (2004). Lobaria does not occur in southern South America (Galloway & Quilhot 1999). Nineteen taxa were recorded from Australia (Filson 1996), but a recent treatment of Australian species reduces this to 8 (Elix 2001a). New Zealand species are discussed by Galloway (1981b, 1985a), with four species recorded. Lobaria scrobiculata discussed in these two latter accounts is now treated under Lobarina (q.v.) following Yoshimura (1998a). Lobaria has close affinities both in morphology and chemistry with Pseudocyphellaria, but seems not so closely related to Sticta (Galloway 1991b, 1997).

Lobaria as presently understood is still heterogeneous, even after the segregation from it of the genera Lobarina (Vain.) Nyl. in Cromb., and Durietzia (C.W.Dodge) Yoshim. (Yoshimura 1998a), the latter genus accommodating the Lobaria crenulata group of taxa (Yoshimura 1984; Yoshimura & Arvidsson 1994) and recently renamed as Lobariella Yoshim. (Yoshimura 2002). Yoshimura (1998a: 92) recognises two species complexes within Lobaria s. lat., viz.: (1) the Ricasolia group, comprising the following aggregates: L. discolor group (to which the New Zealand species L. adscripta and L. asperula belong); L. quercizans group; L. amplissima group; L. dissecta group; L. subdissecta group; L. peltigera group (to which the New Zealand endemic, L. dictyophora, probably belongs), and (2) the L. pulmonaria group (comprising L. pulmonaria, L. orientalis and L. retigera). Molecular studies confirm the heterogeneity of Lobaria s. lat. (Thomas et al. 2002; Stenroos et al. 2003) and suggest that at least two major groupings are present with some North American species of Pseudocyphellaria also probably better included within one of the redefined groups of Lobaria s. lat.