Dictyonema sericeum
Synonyms
Thelephora sericea
Family
Hygrophoraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the spreading, soft, membranous–spongy (when moist), semicircular, or reniform thallus to 25 cm diam.; the zonate or azonate, greenish to blue-green, fibrillose upper surface; and the occurrence of whitish or creamish hymenia (containing basidia) in small spots or patches among the greenish filaments.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Radar Bush, Te Paki Trig Bush, Tutamoe, Dargaville), Auckland (Waitakere Ranges, Rangitoto Island), South Auckland (Mangaotaki River). South Island: Nelson (Puponga, near Denniston), Westland (Paringa River), Otago (Whisky Gully, Blue Mountains).
Pantropical. Known also from Asia, East Africa, the Pacific, Australia, Florida, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Guadaloupe, Dominica, Central and South America.
Habitat
Generally abundant when it occurs, on the damp bark and among mosses on Carpodetus serratus and Leptospermum scoparium in humid bush, also overgrowing mosses on the forest floor and on totara bark in dense, humid northern forest; and overgrowing mosses within waterfall spray at the head of Whisky Gully in dense, shaded silver beech (Lophozonia menziesii) forest. It should be looked for more widely.
Detailed description
Thallus a basidiocarp, sessile or bent backwards, single or united in rosettes, soft or paper-like, small or to 25 cm diam. Upper surface glabrous or hairy or radially fibrillose, sometimes furrowed or zonate, greyish or some shade of green or bluish-green or olivaceous. Lower surface even, granular, reticulate or with low, concentric bands of whitish or cream fruiting bodies (hymenophores). Photobiont green (Chroococcus), or blue-green (Scytonema). Basidia in fascicles, clavate or subcylindrical with 4 curved slender sterigmata. Basidiospores subcylindrical, narrowly ellipsoid 6-10 × 2.8-5 µm, thin-walled, colourless.
Chemistry: TLC−, all reactions negative.
Substrate
Corticolous, muscicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (9 September 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Extra information sections copied from Galloway (1985, 2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 1985: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens. Wellington: PD Hasselberg, Government Printer. 662 pp.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.