Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Peltidea ulorhiza β praetextata Flörke ex Sommerf., Suppl. Fl. Lappon.: 123 (1826).

=?Peltigera nitens f. zeelandica Gyeln., Magy Bot. Lapok. 28: 60 (1929).

Peltigera nitens f. zeelandica Type: New Zealand, sine loco, S. Berggren – S (not seen)[see Murray 1960: 397–398].

Description : Thallus rounded to irregular, 3–10(–12) cm diam., closely attached centrally, margins ±ascending. Lobes 0.5–1.5(–2) cm wide and 2–4 cm long. Margins slightly thickened below, inrolled or downrolled, entire, wavy or notched, ±phyllidiate. Upper surface dark slatey blue-black, suffused red-brown at margins when wet, red-brown to grey-brown when dry, thinly tomentose at margins, glabrous centrally, wrinkled to ±bullate, ±phyllidiate. Phyllidia marginal or developing from cracks and tears in upper surface, simple at first, becoming ±coralloid branched, 0.2–1 mm tall, concolorous with upper surface or darker, etomentose, scattered to ±densely crowded. Lower surface whitish to pale-buff at margins, darkening to ±brownish centrally. Veins conspicuous (×10 lens), raised, 0.2–0.8 mm wide, whitish or pale yellow-brown at margins to brownish or ±blackened centrally; interstices lenticular, whitish. Rhizines discrete, simple, pale to brown, 2–5 mm long. Apothecia occasional, on involute, marginal lobes, ±rounded, 5–6 mm diam.; disc matt, dark red-brown, epruinose; margins pale-buff to red-brown, coarsely corrugate–scabrid to minutely phyllidiate, pale-buff, tomentose and ±ridged below. Ascospores acicular, hyaline to pale-straw, 3–5-septate, 45–70 × 3–4 μm.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

S: Canterbury (Hinewai Reserve Banks Peninsula, Peel Forest), Otago (Dunedin, Akatore, Craig Flat, Cascade Stream West Matukituki Valley) [map in Galloway (2000c: 32, fig. 13)]. On shaded mossy rocks alongside streams and rivers, on damp rocks of roadside cuttings. It is still poorly known and collected in New Zealand. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere and in East Africa (Swinscow & Krog 1988; Purvis et al. 1992; Vitikainen 1994b, 2004a; Goward et al. 1995; Nimis & Martellos 2003;).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Moberg & Holmåsen (1982: 12, fig. 12, 177); Wirth (1987: 347; 1995a: 78; 680 A, B; 689); Goffinet & Hastings (1994: 41, figs 75, 76); et al. (1994b: 99, fig. 25B); Vitikainen (1994b: 74, fig. 115); Goward McCune & Geiser (1997: 217); Dobson (2000: 286; 2005: 319); Brodo et al. (2001: 519, pl. 617); Sérusiaux et al. (2004: 128, 129).

Peltigera praetextata is distinguished from both P. canina and P. membranacea by the presence of marginal and occasionally also laminal phyllidia, a tomentose upper surface (the tomentum commonly only present at the margins), the flattened, smooth brown veins and slender, simple rhizines which are not fused together at their base.