Lecanora xylophila
Family
Lecanoraceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Crustose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO, Sp
Brief description
Characterised by the lignicolous habit (on maritime driftwood); the large, red-brown, campestris-type apothecia, usually with smooth and even margins; a whitish or yellow-white thallus. It was formerly known as Lecanora grantii H. Magn.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Onerahi, Leigh), South Auckland (Waikawau Bay Coromandel Peninsula, Rurima Island), Hawke’s Bay. South Island: Marlborough (Kaikoura). Chatham Islands.
Known also from North America, where it occurs along Pacific northwestern as well as eastern coasts.
Habitat
On coastal driftwood logs, rarely on rocks. On fenceposts in open paddocks. Still rather poorly collected and understood here.
Detailed description
Thallus crustose, spreading, uniform, closely attached, moderately thin, smooth, continuous to verruculose or roughened, often appearing as a thin covering over the substratum, yellow-white to yellow-grey, without pruina or soredia. Prothallus absent. Apothecia sessile, 0.5–2 mm diam. Thalline margin concolorous with thallus, thin, smooth, flexuose, often crenate or scalloped. Disc plane to slightly convex, shiny, dark red-brown to somewhat blackish, intensely red-brown when moist, not pruinose. Amphithecium with small crystals, soon dissolving in K (campestris-type). Epithecium 10–15 μm thick, reddish brown, pigment not dissolving in K (glabrata-type). Asci clavate, 55–70 μm long. Ascospores ellipsoidal, 12.5–17 × 6.5–8.5 μm.
Chemistry: Thallus and apothecial margins: K+ yellow, C−, KC−, Pd+ yellowish; containing as major compounds: atranorin and an unidentified triterpenoid Lgr-1; and as minor compounds: chloroatranorin and an unidentified triterpenoid Lgr-2.
Similar taxa
Similar to Lecanora umbrina but that species has apothecia that are often white-pruinose.
Substrate
Lignicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (3 August 2022). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features, and Similar Taxa sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.