Leptogium coralloideum
Common name
Jelly lichen
Synonyms
Leptogium diaphanum f. coralloideum
Family
Collemataceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO
Brief description
Characterised by the corticolous habit; the deeply ridged upper surface and the crowded cylindrical to coralloid isidia.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Taratara) to Wellington. South Island: Nelson (Aniseed Valley), Marlborough (d’Urville I. to Kowhai Bush). Between latitudes 35º18’s to 42º23’s (map in Galloway 1999: 328, fig. 6).
Cosmopolitan. It has a wide, tropical to warm-temperate distribution and is recorded from NW Europe, East Africa, Brazil, Australia, Arizona, and Mexico (Swinscow & Krog 1988; Verdon 1990, 1992; Jørgensen 1994; Aptroot 2002; McCarthy 2003, 2006; Jørgensen & Nash 2004).
Habitat
In coastal forest or forest remnants, exposed coastal scrub, on rocks and rarely on soil. It is an epiphyte of the following phorophytes: Acer pseudoplatanus*, Agathis australis, Berberis glaucocarpa*, Cordyline australis, Corynocarpus laevigatus, Kunzea species, Melicytus ramiflorus, Metrosideros excelsa, Myoporum laetum, Myrsine australis, Olearia furfuracea, Populus nigra*, Pseudopanax arboreus, and Salix fragilis*.
Detailed description
Thallus lobate, dark green-black or blue-black, pulpy and conspicuous when wet, olive-brownish, dark-grey or grey-blue when dry, closely to loosely attached to bark or encircling twigs, orbicular to spreading, 2–8(15) cm diam. Lobes irregular, rounded to oblong, margins rounded, often ascending, thickened, inrolled, densely isidiate. Upper surface strongly ridged–plicate, ridges sharply defined, isidiate. Isidia cylindrical to coralloid, to 1 mm tall, densely crowded. Lower surface concolorous with upper surface or slightly paler, ridged–complicate, without tomental hairs. Apothecia not seen.
Similar taxa
It differs from the rather similar Leptogium brebissonii, a species not present in New Zealand, mainly in having coralloid isidia on the laminal ridges, and in apothecial characters (Verdon 1990: 431; Jørgensen 1994: 6).
Substrate
Corticolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (2 July 2020). Information in the Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Aptroot A. 2002: New and interesting lichens and lichenicolous fungi in Brazil. Fungal Diversity 9: 15–45.
Galloway D.J. 1999: Notes on the genus Leptogium (Collemataceae, Ascomycota) in New Zealand. Nova Hedwigia 69: 317–35.
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
Jørgensen P.M. 1994: Further notes on European taxa of the lichen genus Leptogium with emphasis on the small species. Lichenologist 26: 1–29.
Jørgensen P.M., Nash II T.H. 2004: Leptogium. In: Nash III, T.H.; Ryan, B.D.; Diederich, P.; Gries, C.; Bungartz, F. (Eds) Lichen flora of the greater Sonoran Desert region. Vol. II. Tempe, AZ, Lichens Unlimited, Arizona State University. Pp. 330–350.
McCarthy P.M. 2003: Catalogue of Australian lichens. Flora of Australia Supplementary Series 19: 1–237.
Swinscow T.D.V.; Krog, H. 1988: Macrolichens of East Africa. London, British Museum (Natural History).
Verdon D. 1990: New Australasian species and records in the genus Leptogium S. Gray (lichenized Ascomycotina: Collemataceae). Mycotaxon 37: 413–440.
Verdon D. 1992: Leptogium. Flora of Australia 54: 173–192.