Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus heteromerous, foliose, dorsiventral, lobate, often irregularly laciniate or polyphyllous, corticolous, rarely saxicolous. Lobes rounded to ± linear-laciniate, margins entire or dissected-phyllidiate or sorediate. Upper surface smooth or wrinkled or faveolate-impressed, with or without soredia, isidia or phyllidia, lacking pseudocyphellae. Medulla white. Photobiont green, Trebouxia, or blue-green, Nostoc or Scytonema. In those species having a green photobiont, internal and external cephalodia containing a blue-green alga are normally present. Lower surface glabrous, smooth or wrinkled-bullate, ± tomentose without cyphellae or pseu-docyphellae. Rhizines simple to squarrose, sparse to frequent, to 5 mm long, concolorous with lower surface or paler. Apothecia hemiangiocarpic, subpedicellate, laminal, lecanorine, disc red-brown, imperforate. Paraphyses thread-like, septate. Asci cylindrical, clavate. Ascospores 8 per ascus, colourless or brown, fusiform or linear-acicular at maturity, 3-7-septate. Pycnidia frequent, minute, immersed, ostiole punctiform, black or dark red-brown. Conidia rod-shaped.

Lobaria is a mainly temperate, cosmopolitan genus of c. 80 species included in the family Lobariaceae, well-developed in the Southern Hemisphere and widely represented in the Northern Hemisphere [Yoshimura J. Hattori bot. Lab. 34: 231-364 (1971); Jordan Bryologist 76: 225-251 (1973)]. Apparent centres of speciation are South America, Eastern Asia (Yoshimura loc. cit. ) and Australia [Weber and Wetmore Beih. Nova Hedwigia 41: 58-59 (1972)]. New Zealand species are discussed by Galloway [ Nova Hedwigia 34: 317-331 (1981)]. Five species are recorded from New Zealand. Lobaria has close affinities both in morphology and chemistry with Pseudocyphellaria but seems not so closely related to Sticta.