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Australian Biological Resources Study

 
 
Checklist of the Lichens of Australia and its Island Territories
     
Introduction | A–D | E–O | P–R | S–Z | Oceanic Islands | References
     
     
Usnea angulata Ach.
     
  Syn. Meth. Lich. 307 (1814). T: “Amer. Septentr.” [North America], Mühlenburg 22-2; holo: H–ACH 1880 (photo seen). ****Usnea undulata Stirt., Scott. Naturalist (Perth) 7: 75 (1883), nom. illeg., non U. undulata Stirt., Scott. Naturalist (Perth)6: 104 (1881). ****Usnea torquescens Stirt., Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 30: 391 (1898). T: Bulli, Illawarra, N.S.W., 1882, W.Kirton s.n.; lecto: BM, fide R.W.Rogers, Austrobaileya 1: 509 (1982).  
     
  Thallus pendulous, to 100 cm long, grey-green, moss-green or pale green; branching subdichotomous; trunk pale; branches 5-sided, 0.5–1.0 mm wide, ridged, alate, with surfaces cracked into uneven plates; secondary branches subparallel, elongate; apices tapered; branchlets sometimes arising from secondary branches, to 2 cm long; fibrils dense on all branches, perpendicular, pectinate, to 10 mm long; papillae absent. Isidia usually absent; pseudocyphellae absent or present on fibrils; soralia absent. Cortex thin, uneven, matt. Medulla thin, dense; axis 3/4 width of branch, hyaline. Apothecia uncommon, lateral or terminal on lateral branches, 2–5 mm diam.; disc concave; margin with few fibrils; lower surface smooth. Ascospores 6–8 (–9) × 5 µm. CHEMISTRY: Cortex containing usnic acid. Medulla K+ yellow → orange or red; containing norstictic acid (major), salazinic acid (minor), consalazinic acid (trace) and connorstictic acid (trace).
     
  Occurs in moist, open forest and in rainforest canopies in subtropical to temperate Qld, N.S.W., Vic. and Tas. An apparently disjunct population is known from the Atherton Tableland, north-eastern Qld. Also in Norfolk Is., New Zealand, North, Central and South America and Japan.  
     
   
     
     
  Stevens (2004)  

Checklist Index
Introduction | A–D | E–O | P–R | S–Z | Oceanic Islands | References
 
 
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