Teloschistes chrysophthalmus
Common name
Golden-eye lichen
Synonyms
Lichen chrysophthalmus, Niorma chrysophthalmus, Xanthoanaptychia chrysophthalma
Family
Teloschistaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: Inc, TO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; fruticose, subfruticose or caespitose thalli formed of ±erect dorsiventral, corticate lobes showing varying degrees of cracking on the lower surface and furnished with prominent marginal and sometimes laminal cilia, and distinctly pedicellate, marginal, or terminal rounded, thin and often folded, expanded apothecia having prominent marginal cilia and yellow to orange-yellow discs. It has small, immersed to slightly protruding pycnidia, with bacillar to narrowly ellipsoidal conidia. It is the only species of Teloschistes in New Zealand with this type of conidia. The species varies in colour from pale grey to yellow to orange, depending on the light regime of the habitat, with shade forms being grey or grey-green (parietin-deficient) and specimens from high-light positions being yellow to orange. It also shows considerable plasticity in both size and degree of development of cilia on both lobe and apothecial margins.
Distribution
North Island: Northland to Wellington South Island: Nelson (Farewell Spit) to Southland (Bluff). Stewart Island.
Known also from Great Britain, Europe, Macaronesia, Cape Verde Is, Africa, southern Arabia, Oceania, Australia, North and South America.
Habitat
A corticolous species widely distributed in lowland and primarily urban habitats in coastal areas where it is a frequent epiphyte of both native and exotic trees and shrubs, especially of fruit trees. It is a species of high-light environments and is commonly found in northern coastal habitats on the margins and canopy of coastal forest and on the windswept vegetation of open clifftops and bluffs, especially on petrel scrub (Coprosma repens and Melicytus novaezelandiae). Further south it is common on wayside trees and shrubs and especially on scattered Discaria toumatou, Cytisus scoparius* and Leptospermum scoparium in grassland and scrub on wasteland, riverbeds and roadsides.
It is known from a wide range of phorophytes: Agathis australis (often on leaves), Avicennia marina, Berberis glaucocarpa*, Betula pendula*, Carmichaelia sp., Cordyline australis, Coprosma crassifolia, C. propinqua, C. repens, C. rigida, Crataegus monogyna*, Cupressus macrocarpa*, Fraxinus excelsior*, Fuchsia excorticata, Hebe spp., Hoheria angustifolia, Ilex aquifolium*, Lophomyrtus obcordata, Lycium ferocissimum*, Malus spp.*, Melicytus alpinus, M. novaezelandiae, Muehlenbeckia complexa, Olearia lineata, O. virgata, Pinus sp.*, Pittosporum crassifolium, Plagianthus divaricatus, Prumnopitys ferruginea [Podocarpus ferrugineus], Prunus sp.*, Pseudotsuga sp.*, Ribes uva-crispa*, Rosa rubiginosa*, Salix fragilis*, Sambucus nigra*, Sophora microphylla, S. prostrata, Ulmus campestris*.
It also colonises fenceposts, painted wooden surfaces, plastic shading in gardens and nurseries, exposed boulders in scrub and farmland and on coastal rocks, s.l. to 400 m. It commonly associates with the following lichens: Candelaria concolor, Candelariella vitellina, Dirinaria applanata, Haematomma babingtonii, Hyperphyscia adglutinata, Lecanora flavomarginata, Opegrapha intertexta, Austroparmelina [Parmelina] labrosa, Parmotrema perlatum [chinense], Physcia adscendens, P. jackii, Punctelia subrudecta, Ramalina celastri, R. glaucescens, Rimelia reticulata, Teloschistes velifer, T. xanthorioides, Usnea spp., Xanthomendoza novozelandica, Xanthoria parietina and Polycaulonia [X.] polycarpa.
Detailed description
Thallus foliose to fruticose, in small clumps, to 4 cm diam., and 0.5-2 cm tall, usually formed from single plants, corticolous. Lobes at first stellate-radiate, 0.5 mm wide, becoming erect, branched, rigid, dorsiventral, to 2.5 mm wide with spinous marginal fibrils, golden or orange-yellow above, especially at ends of lobes, matt or slightly shining, smooth or weakly longitudinally ridged, white or in part yellow below, longitudinally veined and wrinkled. Apothecia pedicellate, marginal or at ends of small laciniae, 1-6 mm wide, nearly plane, becoming convex with age, disc orange-yellow, margins thin, slightly elevated, with up to 150 concolorous fibrils, 0.5-2 mm long. Ascospores ellipsoid, 10-15 × 5-8 µm.
Has a rather variable thallus colour depending on the degree of exposure to sunlight. Shade forms are grey-green while specimens in full sunlight are typically orange-yellow.
Chemistry: Chemosyndrome A; parietin.
Substrate
Corticolous, saxicolous, artificial surfaces (fenceposts, painted wooden surfaces, plastic)
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (29 November 2021). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, and Features 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.