Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lichen cerinus Ehrh.ex Hedwig, Descr. Adumbr. Musc. Frond.: 2 (1789).

Description : Thallus crustose, pale- to dark-grey, often with a bluish or glaucous tinge, occasionally immersed and somewhat inconspicuous, sometimes waxy, the surface smooth or rarely verruculose. Prothallus pale or lacking. Apothecia to 1.5(–2) mm diam., scattered or crowded together, often angular-distorted, sessile, constricted at base, thalline margins persistent, even, swollen, raised and somewhat flexuous, grey. Disc orange, orange-yellow or greenish, concave at first becoming plane, epruinose. Paraphyses widening at apices to 4 μm wide. Ascospores ellipsoidal, 12–15(–18) × 7–9 μm, septum 5–8 μm thick.

Chemistry : Apothecial discs K+ violet-red; containing parietin (major) and minor amounts of emodin, parietin, fallacinol, fallacinal, xanthorin and erythroglaucin (Santesson 1970: 2152; Søchting 1997).

N: Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi). S: Nelson (Burgoo Stream, Upper Cobb Valley), Otago (Old Man Ra.). On dead or living mosses or plant debris, in alpine to high-alpine zones; still rather poorly known in New Zealand. A widespread arctic-alpine lichen with an holarctic distribution in the Northern Hemisphere reaching into high-alpine habitats in the Mediterranean, Tibet, North Africa, Israel, India, Asia (Thomson 1979; Hansen et al. 1987a; Awasthi 1991; Laundon 1992; Søchting et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Poelt & Hinteregger 1993; Santesson 1993; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Søchting & Olech 1995; Elvebakk & Hertel 1996; Egea 1996; Seaward 1996; Galun & Mukhtar 1996; Kondratyuk et al. 1996a, 1996b, 1998; Boqueras 2000; Diederich & Sérusiaux 2000; Scholz 2000; Coppins & Fletcher 2001c; Hafellner & Türk 2001; Llimona & Hladun 2001; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Obermayer 2004; Santesson et al. 2004). Known also from southern South America, Australia, and Antarctica (Galloway & Quilhot 1999; Calvelo & Liberatore 2001; Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Bipolar

Illustrations : Galløe (1936: 78, pls 87–88); Wade (1965: 3, fig. 3); Jahns (1980: 239, pl. 595); Moberg & Holmåsen (1982: 184); Wirth (1987: 93; 1995a: 201, fig. 29G; 1995b: 211); Søchting (1989: 248, fig. 12); Foucard (1990: 101); Dobson (1992: 78; 2000: 89; 2005: 97); Poelt & Hinteregger (1993: 96, figs 5, 6); Johnson et al. (1995: 336); Kärnefelt (1989: 167, fig. 27); Boqueras (2000: 134, fig. 16C; 135, fig. 17C); Brodo et al. (2001: 198, pl. 159).

Caloplaca cerina is characterised by: the muscicolous habit; the round to flexuous apothecia discs with orange to greenish yellow discs when young, surrounded by a distinctive, persistent, smooth, grey thalline exciple; and ascospores with a thick septum (5–8 μm thick). NW Nelson material was earlier referred to as C. cerina var. chloroleuca (Sm.) Th.Fr. (Kondratyuk & Galloway 1994: 27).