editorial

Mayrhofer et al. (2007) recorded R. septentrionalis Malme from twigs of Malus domestica in the South Island of New Zealand. The specimen was originally identified as R. glauca Ropin (Ropin & Mayrhofer 1993), but that species was subsequently synonymized with R. septentrionalis, as was R. freyi (Giralt & Mayrhofer 1995). In 2010 Sheard resurrected Rinodina freyi with Rinodina glauca as a new synonym. He distinguished two morphotypes, one with more distinctly grey thalli corresponding to the type of R. glauca. The species is a characteristic pioneer of the twigs of a wide range of shrubs and trees in Europe and North America (Ropin & Mayrhofer 1993; Sheard 2010), Japan and north-eastern Asia (Sheard et al. 2017). It has been confused with R. septentrionalis, which has very similar ascospores, but the apothecia of the latter are more scattered and narrowly attached. According to Sheard (2010), R. septentrionalis is widespread in the Arctic and northern Scandinavia, and more rarely in the boreal zone in North America, but it has often been confused with R. freyi in central and southern Europe. A detailed description of it is given in Mayrhofer et. al. (2007, as R. septentrionalis) and Sheard (2010).

Elix, J.A.; Edler, C.; Mayrhofer, H. 2020: Two new corticolous species of Rinodina (Physciaceae, Ascomycota) from New Zealand. Australasian Lichenology 86: 95–101.