Cetraria aculeata
Common name
spiny heath lichen
Synonyms
Lichen aculeatus Schreb., Coelocaulon aculeatum (Schreb.) Link
Family
Parmeliaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Foliose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Distribution
South Island: Nelson (Mt Arthur), Canterbury (Mt Peel, Blue Mountain Four Peaks Range, Kirkliston Range), Otago (Strachan Creek Burke Valley, Duncan’s Knob, East Matukituki Valley, Humboldt Mountains, Pisa Range, Dunstan Mountains, Old Man Range, Garvie Mountains, Umbrella Mountains). Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem).
Not recorded from the North Island.
Widely distributed in alpine and polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere, at high elevations in South and East Africa, in South America from Peru to Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, South Orkney and South Shetland Island and the Palmer Peninsula, Antarctica, and from alpine areas in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.
Habitat
Exposed alpine grassland, cushion vegetation, soil stripes and hummocks and fellfield, on the ground, on mossy rocks or straggling amongst low vegetation, never on bare rock.
Detailed description
Thallus fruticose, shrubby, erect, forming clumps 3-10 cm tall, loosely attached to the substrate and often dying below, pseudopodetia solid, brittle when dry, terricolous or muscicolous. Surface glossy, greyish-brown to brown or dark reddish-brown or blackened. Branches 1-2 mm thick, terete or partly deflated-angular, repeatedly branched, margins with small, thorny spines. Apothecia rare, terminal, concolorous with thallus, with subulate cilia on the thalline margin. Ascospores ellipsoid, minute, 5-9 × 3-4 µm
Chemistry: Medulla and pseudocyphellae K−, KC−, C−, Pd−, UV−; containing lichesterinic and protolichesterinic acids.
Similar taxa
Cetraria aculeata differs from C. muricata in the size and surface structure of the lobes and the structure of the pseudocyphellae. C. aculeata has large lobes 2–4(–10) cm tall, while the lobes in C. muricata are up to 3 cm tall, and the lobes in C. aculeata are up to 1 mm wide, while those of C. muricata reach only 0.5 mm diam. Lobe segments in C. aculeata are terete, angular or slightly flattened, while lobe segments in C. muricata are terete. Lobe surfaces in C. aculeata can be distinctly faveolate with longitudinal furrows, whereas in C. muricata the lobe surface is smooth. Pseudocyphellae in C. aculeata are distinct, up to 1 mm long and depressed, while those in C. muricata are smaller, up to 0.3 mm long and not distinctly depressed. C. aculeata is distinguished from C. islandica ssp. antarctica by its narrower, richly branched and entangled, ±terete lobes. It may be confused at times with some ecotypes of Cladia aggregata, but is distinguished from this species by its white, loosely packed medulla (×10 lens), which contrasts with the completely hollow pseudopodetia of Cladia aggregata.
Substrate
Terricolous, muscicolous
Etymology
aculeata: From the Latin aculeus ‘stinger’, aculeatus means ‘barbed’, ‘stinging’ or ‘prickly’
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (4 February 2024). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Similar taxa sections copied from Galloway (1985) & Galloway (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.