Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Cyphella pteridophila Sacc., Syll. Fung. 6: 683 (1888).

≡Chaetocypha pteridophila (Sacc.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 847 (1891).

≡Cyphella filicola Cooke, Grevillea 14: 129 (1886). nom. illeg. [nonC. filicicola Berk. & M.A. Curtis (1873)].

≡Cyphella cookei Sacc. & P.Syd., in P.A. Saccardo, Syll. Fung. 14: 231 (1899) nom. superfl.

=Badimiella serusiauxii Malcolm & Vězda, Nova Hedwigia 59: 519 (1994).

Lectotype: New Zealand. Napier, on Hymenophyllum, W. Colenso 80 – K [fide Garnock-Jones & Malcolm (2001: 66)].

Badimiella serusiauxii. Holotype: New Zealand. Nelson, Isolation Spur road, 440 m, on Blechnum sp., 15.x.1993, W.M. Malcolm 1164 – CHR 413967. Isotypes, Herb. W.M.Malcolm; Herb. A. Vězda.

Description : Thallus epiphyllous, continuous, grey-green, thin to ±inconspicuous. Apothecia orbicular, 0.25–0.3 mm diam., 0.1 mm tall, disc plane, pale-brown to brownish yellow, epruinose, margin not raised. Hymenium 45–50 μm tall, colourless. Asci numerous, wall moderately thick (1–2 μm), tholate. Ascospores 8 per ascus but typically only 4–6 develop, 18–20 × 4.5–5 μm. Campylidia membranaceous, whitish hyaline, to 0.4 mm wide and 0.2–0.3 mm high, paraplectenchymatous, at the base and close to the apex with dense islands of birefringent crystals (dissolving in K). Margins of concave fertile surface covered with anticlinally arranged hydrophobic hyphae forming a conidiogenous layer. Coniodiophores and conidiogenous cells forming a regularly arranged layer without any paraphyses. Conidiogenous cells rectangular, 6–8 × 2 μm, producing 1–3 conidia at or near their apices by sympodial proliferation. Conidia colourless, ellipsoidal to bacillar, 8–11 × 2.5–3 μm.

Chemistry : TLC−, all reactions negative.

N: South Auckland (Hunua Ra., Coromandel Peninsula) to Wellington (Rimutaka Ra.). S: Nelson to Southland, both E and W of the Main Divide. Widely distributed in lowland forest, in cool, humid, rather low-light habitats, on fern fronds (Adiantium, Asplenium, Blechnum, Hymenophyllum, Lastreopsis, Microsorum, Polystichum, Pteridium), leaves of Lycopodium volubile and on leaves of podocarps (Dacrycarpus, Podocarpus) and flowering plants (Freycinetia banksii, Metrosideros, Pseudopanax crassifolius, Pseudowintera, Rhopalostylis). Known also from southern Victoria, eastern New South Wales and Tasmania (McCarthy et al. 2001; Lücking et al. 2001b) where it appears to be the most common foliicolous lichen (McCarthy et al. 2001: 17), and recently recorded from Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapí in Argentina (Lücking et al. 2003).

Austral

Exsiccati : Vězda (1997d: No. 292).

Illustrations : Sérusiaux (1986: 31, figs 71–77); Malcolm & Vězda (1994: 520, fig. 1; 521, fig. 2, 522, fig. 3 – as Badimiella serusiauxii); Malcolm & Galloway (1997: 95, 136, 142, 159, 155 – as Badimiella serusiauxii); Australasian Lichenology 45 (1999: front cover); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 11, 86, 87 – as Badimiella pteridophylla); Lumbsch et al. (2001: 48 – as Badimiella serusiauxii); Malcolm & Malcolm (2001: 23, 26, 27, 34, 43); Lücking et al. (2003: 29, fig. 6B).

Badimiella pteridophila is characterised by: the foliicolous habit; the small, whitish, half-moon-shaped campylidia with marginal cilia (×10 lens); its 1-septate campylidioconidia; and its brownish, Fellhanera -like apothecia.