Peltula obscurans

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Peltula obscurans
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lichinomycetes
Order: Lichinales
Family: Peltulaceae
Genus: Peltula
Species:
P. obscurans
Binomial name
Peltula obscurans
(Nyl.) Gyeln. (1935)
Synonyms
  • Endocarpiscum obscuransNyl. (1872)

Peltula obscurans (common rock-olive) is a dark olive to dark gray squamulose lichen that grows on rock and soil in arid habitats around the world. It may grow as a rosette of squamulous lobes, or with widely scattered lobes. A single black apothecium may be centered on the lobe. [1] [2] The apothecia disc turns reddish-brown when wet, which contrasts with the lobes that turn olive-green when wet. [1] It can be found in southern Europe, South America, southwestern North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. [2]

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Circinaria arida is a 0.5–6 cm, light olive-brown custose lichen that grows on rock, often like a cluster of little light brown to olive balls growing on pebbles, in the southwestern deserts of North America. It is also found in Eurasia, and arid parts of North America from the southern Great Plains and Midwest to California. It is warty (verrucose) with the warts sometimes cracking apart areolate. The warts or areolas have angular to rounded sides. The 0.2-2.3 mm, convex to flat-topped areolas are separated by deep fissures that may be as deep (0.1–2 mm) as the areaola is wide, so the lichen often appears to be made of clusters of little balls crammed up next to each other, although the areolas are sometimes isolated. In California it is commonly found growing on pebbles. Each areola has a single sunken black, dust covered (pruinose) fruiting body (apothecium) with a white rim. A thin strip of prothallus sometimes is at the outer edge, forming a narrow dark zone (fimbriate). The similar Aspicilia desertorum has a white pruina on the apothecia. It is negative for lichen spot tests, I−, K−, P−, C−.

<i>Oxneria fallax</i> Species of fungus

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<i>Xanthoparmelia mexicana</i> Species of foliose lichen

Xanthoparmelia mexicana, commonly known as the salted rock-shield, is a foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It grows in 4–10 cm diameter rosettes of gray-green to yellow-green lobes in arid climates all over the world.

<i>Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca</i> Species of fungus

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Heppia conchiloba is a gray to light brown squamulous to foliose terricolous lichen that occurs in southwestern deserts of North America. The surface appears as if covered in a light dust (pruinose). The squamules are peltate, up to 8 mm in diameter. There are one to several apothecia per lobe, with reddish-brown urn-shaped (urceolate) to concave discs, immersed so as to appear like concave spots. Lichen spot tests are all negative. Its entire thallus body is deeply convex, and it is different in color from other members of Heppia and or Peltula, which are olive or brownish-olive.

<i>Acarospora strigata</i> Species of fungus

Acarospora strigata is an areolate to verruculous crustose lichen that grows on rock around the world, in full sun or shade, and in mesic to arid habitats. It is brown but may appear white or pale gray if it is covered in a pruina. The lichen is common in southwestern deserts of North America.

<i>Lobothallia alphoplaca</i> Species of lichen

Lobothallia alphoplaca, the variable sunken disk lichen, is a creamy gray to brown, placodioid areolate lichen that grows on rock in on rock and sometimes moss. It prefers growing on siliceous rocks. It is found in Europe, central Asia, and North America, where it grows in the southwestern deserts to central California. The center has numerous crowded and deformed apothecia with rims of thallus-like tissue (lecanorine). With dark reddish or grayish brown to black discs. Lichen spot tests on the thallus and apothecia are C−, and KC−, with tests on the cortex K+ red, P+ orange, or K−, P− and on the medulla K+ red, and P+ orange. It produces norstictic acid, constictic acid, or salazinic acid as secondary metabolites.

Aspicilia californica is a small white to white mottled gray or gray-green foliose lichen, with stringy, terete, branch-like lobes. It is endemic to central and southern California, that grows on organic debris, moss, and rock in chaparral habitats. It attaches to the substrate at several points along the branch-like lobes. It may form areoles when growing on more solid substrates. Apothecia are rare. Lichen spot tests on the cortex and medulla are K+ red, KC-, C-, + orange, and I-. The olive brown Aspicilia filiformis is another fruticose species in this mostly crustose genus, occurring in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Washington and Montana, with one known location also in California.

<i>Buellia badia</i> Species of lichen in the family Caliciaceae

Buellia badia, the parasitic button lichen, is a dark chocolate-brown crustose areolate lichen of Europe, northern Africa, and North America that starts as a parasite growing on other lichens, such as Aspicilia phaea, gradually then becoming independent growing on rock (sometimes also on hardwood. Areoles may be contiguous or dispersed. Lecideine apothecia are 0.3 to 0.9 mm in diameter with black discs, that are initially flat, then become strongly convex as they age. Lichen spot tests are all negative. There are no known secondary metabolites as of. It is similar in appearance and other ways to the chocolate brown Dimelaena californica, which also starts off as a parasite on other lichens, and has spores of similar shape, size, and internal construction. D. californica has not been found on wood, is more preferential as to the lichens it starts growing on, and commonly has norstictic acid as a secondary metabolite. Some think they should be included in a new, third genus.

<i>Physcia caesia</i> Blue-gray foliose lichen found throughout much of the world

Physcia caesia, known colloquially as blue-gray rosette lichen and powder-back lichen, is a species of foliose lichenized fungus. First described by Georg Franz Hoffmann in 1784, it is common across much of Europe, North America and New Zealand, and more patchily distributed in South America, Asia, Australia and Antarctica. There are 2 subspecies: P. c. caesia and P. c. ventosa, as well as a number of distinct forms and varieties. Molecular studies suggest that the species as currently defined may be polyphyletic. It is typically pale gray shading to darker gray in the center, and grows in a small rosette, usually some 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) across at maturity. It only rarely has apothecia, instead reproducing most often vegetatively via soredia, which are piled in round blue-gray mounds across the thallus's upper surface. It grows most often on rock—principally calcareous, but also basaltic and siliceous—and also occurs on bone, bark and soil. It is nitrophilic and is particularly common on substrates where birds perch.

<i>Xanthoparmelia lineola</i> Species of foliose lichen

Xanthoparmelia lineola, commonly known as the tight rock-shield, is a foliose lichen species in the genus Xanthoparmelia. It is a common species with a temperate distribution. Found in North America and South Africa, it grows on rocks.

References

  1. 1 2 Sharnoff 2014, pp. 319–20.
  2. 1 2 Nash et al. 2002, p. 335.

Sources

  • Nash, T.H.; Ryan, B.D.; Gries, C.; Bugartz, F., eds. (2002). Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region, Volume 1. Vol. 1. Phoenix: Arizona State University.
  • Sharnoff, Stephen (2014). Field Guide to California Lichens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-19500-2.