Forest Speckleback

Description:

Super foliose bluish green lichen which develops very tight kale-like heads and looser highly leafy parts also. A very large patch - 30cm x 100cm

Habitat:

Growing on 'Coastal ti-tree' (Leptospermum laevigatum) within 500m of the ocean on very sandy soil.

Notes:

Thanks to Graeme John Ambrose who says "This is Forest Speckleback (Parmelia subrudecta). When dry it is a bluish-grey, but it become blue-green when damp, as the surface layer (cortex) becomes partly transparent to expose the layer of green algae (Trebouxia sp.) below. This permits photosynthesis. The lobe margins are often brownish. The lower cortex is cream to brown. Punctelia species characteristically have crumbly areas called soralia on their lobe margins and as white spots on their surface. Sometimes the surface becomes covered with great masses of soralia, as you see here. This is an asexual means of reproduction, with the little bundles of cells that erupt in the soralia containing both fungal and algal partners. Forest Speckleback is commonly found on tree trunks."