Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Lichen cinereus L., Mant. Pl. 1: 132 (1767).

=Lecanora (Aspicilia) novae zelandiae H.Magn., Sv. Bot. Tidskr. 37: 282 (1943).

Lecanora novae zelandiae. Holotype: New Zealand. Canterbury, Lake Pukaki, near hotel on rock at roadside in grassland, 1927, G. Einar & Greta Du Rietz – S – not seen.

Description : Flora (1985: 22).

Chemistry : Cortex and medulla K+ yellow→red, C− , KC+ red, Pd+ orange; containing norstictic acid.

S: Canterbury (Mt Phipps, Arthur's Pass, Devil's Gap, Banks Peninsula, Lake Pukaki), Otago (Ram Hill, Lake Ohau, Old Man Ra., Rock & Pillar Ra., Poolburn Reservoir, Sutton–Middlemarch Road), Southland (Homer Cirque, S Mavora Lake). C: Alpine, to montane on rocks. Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Greenland, North America, Brazil and Australia (Magnusson 1939; Purvis et al. 1992; Nimis 1993; Santesson 1993; Hansen 1995; Esslinger & Egan 1995; Aptroot 2002e; McCarthy 2003c; Nimis & Martellos 2003; Santesson et al. 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Galløe (1936: p. 4, pls 1–2); Weber (1967: 48, figs 5, 6); Ozenda & Clauzade (1970: 555, fig. 459); Brodo (1981: 16, fig. 2); Wirth (1987: 55; 1995b: 151); Hansen (1995: 78); Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 95, 146, 147, 153, 161, 186); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 4); Lumbsch et al. (2001: 25); Pope (2005: 51).

Aspicilia cinerea is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; the whitish to grey-white, areolate thallus; immersed black apothecia with, matt, red-brown, urceolate discs; brownish epithecium and hypothecium; ovoid ascospores, 15–25 × 8–13 μm; and norstictic acid (K+ yellow→red) in the medulla.