flavopunctelia lichen

Flavopunctelia flaventior

Description 6

 Thallus: foliose, weakly appressed to tightly adnate, 4-10(-13) cm in diam., lobate; lobes: sublinear to sub-irregular, 2-6 (-9) mm wide, plane, contiguous; upper surface: greenish yellow to yellow-green, turning a dark buff with age in the herbarium, smooth to weakly wrinkled and rugose, rarely weakly ridged-reticulate, sometimes with white maculae; rare specimens with a few marginal laciniae; pseudocyphellae: white, large (up to 1 mm), round to elongated and branched, generally common and abundant; soredia: white, farinose to granular, in round, laminal soralia arising from pseudocyphellae and sometimes coalescing; lobe margins may also support soralia, only occasionally forming reflexed, "crescent-shaped" soralia; medulla: white with a continuous algal layer; lower surface: black to dark chestnut brown, sometimes paler toward the margin, smooth to finely wrinkled; rhizines: simple, rarely branching, short, concolorous with the lower surface, usually absent in a zone along the margins; Apothecia: rare, laminal, sessile to substipitate, 2-6 mm in diam., pseudocyphellate and becoming sorediate; disc: deeply concave, dark rusty-brown; margin: concolorous with the thallus; asci: Lecanora-type, 8-spored; ascospores: hyaline, simple, ovoid to ellipsoid, 8-13 x 5-7 µm; Pycnidia: black, rare or absent; conidia: bifusiform or appearing filiform, 6-10 µm long; Spot tests: upper cortex K+ yellowish, KC-, C-, P-; medulla C+ red, KC+ red, K-, P-; Secondary metabolites: upper cortex with usnic acid (minor) and rarely atranorin (trace); medulla with lecanoric acid (major), + 5-chlorolecanoric acid (minor or trace).; Substrate and ecology: on rocks (basalt, gneiss, granite, rhyolite, sandstone and rarely limestone), bark of hardwoods (Fouquieria, Prunus, Quercus, Robinia), bark and wood of conifers (Juniperus, Picea, Pinus, Pseudotsuga) from 120-850 m in southern California or 1250-3140 m in other Sonoran areas; World distribution: widespread in temperate and boreal areas as well as higher elevations in the tropics in North and South America, Africa, Europe and India; Sonoran distribution: mountains of Arizona, southern California, including the Channel Islands, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora.; Notes: As pointed out by Hale (1980), some specimens of F. flaventior intergrade with F. soredica. However, the combination of abundant large pseudocyphellae, laminal soralia, and the infrequent formation of marginal "crescent-shaped" soralia is usually diagnostic. Specimens collected from bark are more likely to appear "intermediate" than those occurring on rocks. 

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Jason Hollinger, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7147684@N03/982854348/
  2. František Bouda, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/16120.jpg
  3. (c) André Aptroot, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.tropicallichens.net/photopath/flavoparmelia-flaventior-yunnan.jpg
  4. (c) National Museum of Natural History Collections, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10267258
  5. (c) Wenting Shi, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10267261
  6. (c) Lichen Unlimited: Arizona State University, Tempe., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/10548498

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