Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Tuckermanopsis ciliaris (Ach.) Gyeln. [=Cetraria ciliaris Ach.]

Description : Thallus foliose to subfoliose, loosely adnate on bark. Lobes moderately broad, c. 1–4 mm wide, slightly canaliculate, with scattered marginal cilia. Upper surface pale-brown to greenish, weakly wrinkled or ±smooth, with scattered pseudocyphellae, upper cortex of paraplectenchymatous hyphae. Lower surface pale-tan, brownish or blackish, with sparse rhizines. Ascomata apothecia, developed at margins. Asci small, uniseriate, cylindrical, c. 30 × 8 μm; tholus small, ocular chamber cylindrical and broad, axial body rather distinctive and broad. Ascospores globose to subglobose, c. 4–8 × 4–8 μm. Conidiomata pycnidia, marginal, raised, wall one-layered, pigmented, no cortical tissue beneath, conidia bifusiform, rarely filiform, c. 5–6 × 1–2 μm.

Chemistry : Atranorin in the cortex and alectoronic, α-collatolic, microphyllic, physodic and protolichesterinic acids in the medulla (Kärnefelt & Thell 2001).

Tuckermanopsis is a genus of small-lobed foliose taxa in the family Parmeliaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), often classified with Cetraria. The genus is best developed in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Japan, E Asia) where it has a boreal-montane distribution, and comprises c. 10 taxa worldwide, being known from North America (Esslinger & Egan 1995; McCune & Geiser 1997; Esslinger 2004b); eastern Asia (Lai 1980), Japan (Kurokawa (1991a) Southern South America (Adler & Calvelo 2002) and Tasmania (Kantvilas et al. 2002). The systematic position of the genus is disussed by Kärnefelt et al. (1992, 1993), Thell (1998) and Kärnefelt & Thell (2001). On the basis of ITS sequence data, Tuckermanopsis is regarded as polyphyletic (Thell 1998) composed of three or more groups of different origins (Thell et al. 2004). It was recently monographed (Kärnefelt & Thell 2001). One species is known from northern New Zealand, where it is apparently rare (Galloway 1985a: 82).