Cladonia mitis
Synonyms
Cladina mitis, Cladonia arbuscula subsp. stictica
Family
Cladoniaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Fruticose
Current conservation status
2018 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by anisotomous podetia, mainly trichotomous branching; and the presence of usnic (±), stictic, norstictic and sometimes fumarprotocetraric acids.
Distribution
North Island: Gisborne (Arowhana Raukumara Ranges). South Island: Nelson (Mt Arthur, St Arnaud Range, Lake Rotoiti), Marlborough (Raglan Range, Mt Fishtail), Westland (Kelly Range, Great Unknown tarns, Barlow River, Bealey Range Haast), Canterbury (Lewis Pass, Nina Valley, Arthur’s Pass, Bealey Range, Woolshed Hill, Liebig Range, Malte Brun Range, Kirkliston Range), Otago (Mt Minos Humboldt Mts, Pisa Range, St Bathans Range, Mt Pisgah Kakanui Mts, Old Man Range, Teviot Swamp, Lammerlaw Range, Kyeburn Range, Maungatua), Southland (Key Summit, The Wilderness, Seaward Bush, Sandy Point, Awarua Bay, Waituna Lagoon, Takahe Valley). Stewart Island: (Mt Anglem, Glory Cove, Table Hill, Tin Range, Deceit Peaks, Port Pegasus).
Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere. Known also from New South Wales and Tasmania, southern South America and Antarctica.
Habitat
In subalpine to high alpine grasslands, heathlands and shrublands. In exposed alpine grasslands of Stewart Island it is used, together with leaves of Dracophyllum longifolium, as nest-lining material of the New Zealand dotterel (Charadrius obscurus).
Detailed description
Primary thallus unknown. Podetia rather slender and delicate, in mats or tufts, 3-10 cm tall and 1-4 mm diam., branching anisotomic in whorls of three or four, sometimes also dichotomous, main stem distinct, ending in 2-5 sterile branchlets pointing in various directions or ± erect or weakly recurved to one side, fertile branches in short corymbs, axils mainly open. Cortex dull, smooth or warted with age, not arachnoid-tomentose, mainly impellucid, not sorediate, whitish or bluish-grey, ultimate branchlets brownish. Apothecia small, brown, single or ± clustered at tips of branchlets.
Chemistry: Cortex K-, KC+ yellow, Pd-. Rangiformic and usnic acids.
Similar taxa
It differs from non-Australasian specimens of C. mitis that contain fatty acids of the rangiformic acid complex. C. mitis differs from C. pycnoclada. This latter species is known in the Southern Hemisphere only from Argentina and Chile and from Antarctica. A recent study of phylogenetic relationships and levels of geographical differentiation of the two closely related bipolar species C. arbuscula and C. mitis has shown that C. mitis appears to have evolved from C. arbuscula, as a strongly supported monophyletic group, but that C. arbuscula is paraphytletic. Very robust populations of this species were earlier referred to C. alpestroides.
Substrate
Terricolous
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (21 September 2021). 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