Summary ³

Flavoparmelia caperata or common greenshield lichen (from Lichens of North America) is a medium to large foliose lichen that has a very distinctive pale yellow green upper cortex when dry. The rounded lobes, measuring 3–8 mm (0.1–0.3 in) wide, usually have patches of granular soredia arising from pustules. The lobes of the thallus may be smooth, but quite often have a wrinkled appearance especially in older specimens. The lower surface is black except for a brown margin; rhizomes...

Description ⁴

 Thallus: adnate to loosely adnate, foliose, 5-20 cm in diam., sometimes forming extensive patches, irregularly lobate; lobes: subirregular, elongate, plane to subconvex, separate, 5-13 mm wide, contiguous to somewhat imbricate; apices rotund, crenate, eciliate; upper surface: yellow green to pale yellow, occasionally green-gray (in shade), smooth but becoming rugose and folded with age, dull to somewhat shiny; epruinose and emaculate; soredia: laminal, granular to wart-like, initially in circular soralia but becoming diffuse and confluent; isidia: absent; medulla: white with continuous algal layer; lower surface: black centrally, brown and naked peripherally; rhizines: dense to sparse centrally to edge of brown zone, black, simple, sometime brown or white tipped; Apothecia: rare, up to 8 mm wide, laminal, sessile; disc: brown; margin: smooth but sorediate sometimes; asci: clavate, 8-spored; ascospores: simple, ellipsoid, hyaline, 15-24 x 8-13 µm; Pycnidia: laminal, immersed; conidia: weakly bifusiform, 6 x 1 µm; Spot tests: upper cortex K-, C-, KC+ yellow, P-; medulla K-, C-, KC-, P+ red; Secondary metabolites: upper cortex with usnic acid (major) and atranorin (trace); medulla with protocetraric acid (major) and caperatic acid (minor).; Substrate and ecology: on broad leafed trees, shrubs and fence posts in open habitats, coastal to montane up to 2000m, rarely on rocks; World distribution: North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa; Sonoran distribution: common on oaks, particularly in coastal California and Baja California, occasionally in central Arizona southwards into the Sierra Madre Occidental of Sonora and Chihuahua. 

Sources and Credits

1. (c) William J. Davis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by William J. Davis
2. (c) CALS, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), uploaded by CALS
3. Adapted by CALS from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavoparmelia_caperata
4. (c) Lichen Unlimited: Arizona State University, Tempe., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/10547609

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