Pannaria araneosa
Synonyms
Cetraria dermatoidea, Lecanora araneosa, Parmelia rubiginosa var. araneosa, Platysma dermatoides, Psoroma araneosum, Psoroma subpruinosum
Family
Pannariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous/saxicolous habit; large, lobate–foliose thalli without a prothallus; broad (5–20 mm wide), coriaceous lobes with rounded margins; a marginally tomentose upper surface; laminal, densely wrinkled–plicate, globose, granular to subplacodioid cephalodia; sessile, laminal apothecia with chestnut-brown to red-brown, epruinose discs; and ellipsoidal ascospores, 12–16 × 8–9 μm. It has a green alga as major photobiont.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Three Kings Islands, Little Barrier Island, Tutukaka), Auckland (Waitakere Ranges), South Auckland (Coromandel Peninsula, near Waitomo), Wellington (Pencarrow Head, Eastbourne, Rimutaka Ranges). South Island: Nelson (Lake Rotoiti), Westland (Greymouth), Canterbury (Banks Peninsula), Southland (Greenhills, Rowallan Burn). Stewart Island: (Port Pegasus).
Habitat
Mainly lowland and coastal, on bark of trees and shrubs or on rocks in high-light situations.
Detailed description
Thallus large, rosette-forming to spreading, loosely to closely attached, lobate-foliose, free at margins, without a prothallus, 5-12(-20) cm diam. Lobes broad, 5-20 mm wide, coriaceous, margins rounded, sinuous often crisped, ascending, overlapping, conspicuously thickened. Upper surface uneven, matt centrally, coarsely scabrid near margins and regularly marginally tomentose, tomentum white, arachnoid, pubescent, plant bright green when wet, pale greenish-grey or pale greenish-fawn when dry. Medulla white. Lower surface whitish, naked or very finely tomentose, striate, with occasional tufts of pale buff, squarrose rhizines centrally. Cephalodia frequent to moderate, small, globose, ± granular to subplacodioid, 1.3 mm diam., pale whitish-grey, laminal, densely wrinkled-plicate. Apothecia sessile, laminal, often crowded centrally 1-5 mm diam., margins concolorous with thallus, thick, crenulate-striate, disc plane or subconcave, chestnut-brown to dark red-brown, smooth, matt, epruinose, not gyrose-contorted, without fissures or thalline lobules, thalline exciple wrinkled-verrucose. Ascospores ellipsoid, 12-16 × 8-9 µm.
Substrate
Corticolous and saxicolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (17 May 2021). Information in the Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa 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.