A CONSPECTUS OF THE LICHEN GENUS STEREOCAULON ...

268 Journ. Hattori Bot. Lab. No. 43
holotypus; K, isotypus).
Icon. : LAMB 1951, fig. 2D (ceph. cortex); 1968, figs. IC, 2C; as St. botryophorum.
Remarks: it now seems clear that this taxon should be placed with St. foliolosum, as
suspected by LAMB, 1966, p. 351. The phyllocladia remain in an indeterminate, subsquamulose
to subcoralloid condition, not becoming distinctly foliose. If sterile, a certain distinction
from St. himalayense AWAS. et LAMB does not generally seem possible, but in the case of the
DUTHIE type, although it has no apothecia, the tall and robust growth refers it to St. jolio~osum
rather than to St. himalayense.
Var. strictum (BAB.) LAMB
Canad. J. Bot. 29: 582 (1951); J. Jap. Bot. 43: 297 (1968). - Stereocaulon ramulosum var. strictum
BAB. Hooker's J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 4: 250 (1852). - Stereocaulon rnixturn [subsp.]** strictum
(BAB.) NYL. Synopsis Methodica Lichenum, 1 (2): 239 (1860). - Stereocaulon strictum (BAB.) MULL.
ARG. Bull. Herb. Boissier, 3 (4): 194 (1895) (nom. illegit.; non St. strictum TH. FR. ex anno 1857). -
Stereocaulon macrocephalum var. strictum (BAB.) DODGE, Ann. Cryptog. Exot. 2 (2): 126 (1929).
Typus: 2 collections from N. India, Uttar Pradesh, Kurnaun Div., cited in the protologue: Madhari,
altit. 8700 feet, and Sagtia deo Pass, altit. 11500 feet, both leg. STRACHEY and WINTERBOTTOM
(date ?), without designation of holotype. DODGE (1929, p. 126) lectotypified the taxon on the former
specimen. This specimen (EM-BAB, lectotypus, is a mixture of the present variety and St. piluliferum
TH. FR., and the isolectotype in K consists of the same mixture. The other (paratype) specimen from
Sagtia deo Pass is also mainly the present variety, but with an intermixture of St. pomiferurn DuVIGN.
Icon.: NYL. 1860, PI. VII, fig. 13, as St. mixtum subsp. strictrim (spores).
Remarks: in this variety the foliose phyllocladia show a transition to coralloid form in
the upper parts of the pseudopodetia. AGHORAMURTHY, SARMA and SESHADRI (1961) reported
a Himalayan specimen ascribed to St. foliolosum var. "Stictum" [sic] to contain atranorin,
stictic acid, an undetermined substance (probably an aliphatic hydrocarbon) and
D-arabitol; if stictic acid were indeed present, the specimen must have been incorrectly determined.
79. Stereocaulon coniophyllum LAMB
Bot. Not. 114 (3): 266 (1961); J. Jap. Bot. 43: 294 (1968); Oz. et CLAUZ. Les Lichens: 470 (1970);
YOSHIM. Lichen Flora of Japan in Colour: 175 (1974).
Typus: Norway, Hordaland, Eidfjord, Hardanger, Veringfoss, reg. subalpina, altit. 450-630 m s.
m., leg. J. HAVAAS, 1899 (FH, holotypus; BG, isotypus).
Icon.: LAMB 1961, figs. 1, 2; 1968, figs. lA, 2A. - HENSSEN et JAHNS 1974, fig. 3.21~ (cephalodium
in section). - YOSHIM. 1974, fig. 75e.
Mat. chim. : atranorin and lobaric acid.
Distrib. : Europe, N. America, Himalayan region, Africa, Japan. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria,
Canada (N. W. Territ.), U. S. A. (Alaska), N. India, Nepal, Sikkim, Africa (Uganda), Japan.
Remarks: the very wide distributional range suggests that this may be a very ancient
species of Afro-Asiatic origin, perhaps persisting at the present day only in relict stations of
a formerly continuous area in the northern hemisphere. Its ecology in Norway was studied
by VEVLE (1975); it is there restricted to the spray zones of larger waterfalls, the effect of the
spray seeming to be twofold, i.e. keeping the plant continuously moist and stabilizing the
temperature climate. VEVLE describes a new association, the Stereocauletum coniophyllae,
which includes also Vestergrenopsis isidiata (DEGEL.) DAHL and Placopsis gelida (L.) LINDS.