Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Enterographa neozelandica Redinger, Feddes Repert. 43: 72 (1938).

≡Enterographa neozelandica var. ochracea Redinger, Feddes Repert. 43: 73 (1938).

=Enterographa neozelandica var. murina Redinger, Feddes Repert. 43: 73 (1938).

=Opegrapha fineranii C.W.Dodge in B.A. Fineran, Trans. Roy. Soc. N. Z. (Bot.) 3 (17): 248 (1969).

=Placidiopsis novozelandica C.W.Dodge, Nova Hedwigia19: 453 (1971) ["1970"].

Lectotype: New Zealand: Southland, Pahia Point, Foveaux Strait, coastal rock, viii.1935, J.S. Thomson T 2246 [A116] – W [fide Sparrius (2004: 89)]. Isolectotypes: CHR 378505, OTA 030211. Paratypes: Ibid., J.S. Thomson T 2248 [A27] – W, CHR 378504A, 378504B; OTA 030208, 030219. [Originally type specimens were designated only for the two published varieties with no type specimens cited under the description of the nominal variety. Sparrius (2004: 87) chose E. neozelandica var. ochracea as lectotype of the species, with var. ochracea as a nomenclatural synonym of the autonym.]

Enterographa neozelandica var. murina. Lectotype selected here: New Zealand. Southland, Bluff, coastal rocks, J.S. Thomson T827 (8.viii.1933) [Z 143] – OTA 029050 [J.S. Thomson has labelled his specimen "827 Bluff, coastal rocks, mauvish-mouse colour – Chiodecton murinum Zahlbr."]. Isolectotype – CHR 378502. Paratypes: New Zealand, Southland, Foveaux Strait, "Tautuku Bay" [this is in error and should refer to Pahia Point], on rocks, J.S. Thomson [T2245] A 29 – CHR 378503 (two packets), OTA 030067, 030197. No material in W (Laurens Sparrius pers. comm.).

Opegrapha fineranii. Holotype: New Zealand. Snares Is, on rock in forest behind Biological Station, 3.ii.1961, B.A. Fineran 116 – CANU.

Placidiopsis novozelandica. Holotype: New Zealand. Stewart I., Mutton Bird Islets, Big Stage I., on granite under trees, 24.ii.1965, B.A. Fineran 912 – CANU.

Description : Thallus in thick, closely attached rosettes or spreading widely in patches 1–8 (–12) cm diam., often forming closed mosaics with other crustose lichens and then delimited by a whitish to black, wavy, raised prothalline line. Upper surface smooth to minutely areolate, pale creamish to fawn or brownish, mushroom-brown-pink to purplish brown or greyish purple, water-repellent, 300–500 μm thick. Cortex, 20–25 μm thick, of anticlinally arranged hyphae. Medulla thick, white, with crystals, 20–25 μm diam. Apothecia immersed, punctiform to lirellate, sigmoid, or shortly branched, 0.1–0.5(–1) mm long and 0.1 mm wide, thalline margins appearing as a slightly raised whitish halo (contrasting with brownish thallus) around a pale- to dark-brown narrow, epruinose discs (visible commonly as only a slit, but sometimes abraded and then distinctly brown-black). Exciple c. 20 μm in section, without crystals. Hymenium colourless, 120–150(–180) μm tall. Paraphysoids slender, septate, 2–2.5 μm diam., apices not swollen, with a few branches and anastomoses. Epithecium brown, to 20 μm thick, K+ green. Hypothecium hyaline. Asci narrowly cylindrical with a narrow, tapering foot, 70–100(–120) × 11.5–13.5(–15) μm, 8-spored. Ascospores fusiform, sometimes curved to subsigmoid, 32–45 × 3.5–5 μm. Pycnidia present or absent, often common when present, widely scattered, immersed, 125–130 μm diam., ostiole pale red-brown. Conidia not seen.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

N: Auckland (Waitakere Ra.) on coastal conglomerate (Bartlett 1988). S: Nelson (Kaihoka Lakes), Otago (Otago Harbour, Catlins), Southland (Bluff, Riverton, Howells Point, Pahia Point, Breaksea Sound, Fiordland). St: (The Neck, Big Stage I., Mutton Bird Is). Sn: (near Biological Station). On coastal rocks at high tide mark, forming prominent pale brownish or creamish, to purplish thick patches among mosaics of white Pertusaria graphica and Opegrapha diaphoriza. Commonly also with Caloplaca circumlutosa, Pertusaria graphica, Tephromela atra and Tylothallia pahiensis. It also grows in the upper parts of the black, Verrucaria zone. It is discussed and illustrated (as Graphina novae-zelandiae) in a coastal lichen study at Breaksea Sound, Fiordland (Johnson 1992).

Endemic

Illustrations : Redinger (1938: tab. 243, fig. K− as Enterographa neozelandica); Hayward (1977: 580, fig. 12C – as Arthonia sp.); Sparrius (2004: 83, fig. 7K; 135, fig. 58).

Dirina neozelandica is characterised by: the saxicolous habit (coastal rocks); a thick, smooth, pale creamish, brownish-grey to ochraceous-brownish [E. neozelandica var. ochracea Redinger] or purplish brown to purplish grey [E. neozelandica var. murina Redinger] (thallus colour is dependent on degree of shading of thallus), matt thallus, with a thick, snow-white medulla; immersed, rounded or elliptical, sigmoid, to very shortly branched apothecia (pseudothecia) 0.5–1 mm long, with narrow, whitish, raised margins and a narrow (0.05–0.3 mm wide) black disc; a colourless hymenium 120–150(–180) μm tall; asci cylindrical with a narrow, tapering foot, 70–100(–120) × 11.5–13.5(–15) μm; interascal filaments (paraphysoids), slender, 2–3 μm diam., not much swollen at apices; colourless, 3-septate, fusiform, curved to subsigmoid ascospores, 32–45 × 3.5–5 μm; and a red-brown to dark-brown hypothecium contrasting abruptly with the white of the medulla.

Dodge (1971: 453–454) in his description of Placidopsis novozelandica, gives the ascospores as "acicular, about 16-locular" whereas they are 3-septate and fusiform. Obviously he mistook the isolated interascal filaments (paraphysoids), that readily separate as isolated needle-like structures of the dimensions in his protologue ("45–50 × 3 μm"), for ascospores. Material from the Auckland Is identified by Dodge as Placidiopsis novozelandica (CANU) is in fact referable to Pertusaria graphica.

The related taxon, Dirina insulae-howensis Sparrius, which is known only from Lord Howe I., differs in the presence of a red excipular pigment (emodin), visible as a faint orange pruina on the apothecia (Sparrius 2004: 87–88).