Lichens of Olompali State Historic Park

 Thallus: crustose, leprose, unstratified or, in thick specimens, sometimes indistinctly stratified, indeterminate, thin, irregularly spreading, sometimes forming scattered granules, but usually ±continuous; surface: bright yellow throughout, often with an orange or greenish tinge, composed of a mass of fine soredia, 12-30(-40) µm in diam.; medulla: usually not evident, in thick thalli sometimes indistinctly present, yellow; Ascomata: rare (in the Sonoran region, known from one specimen from Mexico), up to 0.5 mm in diam., ±superficial; disc: pale orange, often yellow-pruinose; margin: thin, ecorticate, soon becoming excluded; exciple: poorly developed, composed of anastomosing hyphae; epihymenium: hyaline, up to 18 µm tall, composed of of a reticulate layer of richly branched paraphysoids; hymenium: hyaline, up to 50 µm tall (including epihymenium); paraphysoides: 1-1.5 µm wide, richly intertwined in epihymenium; hypothecium: colorless, poorly developed; asci: clavate, 8-spored; ascospores: 9-14 x 3 µm; Spot tests: K- or K+ orange, sometimes darkening to red-black, C-, KC-, P- or P+ orange; UV+ dull orange or UV-; Secondary metabolites: calycin and/or pinastric acid.; Substrate and ecology: on bark, wood, stone (mainly rhyolite) in dry and shaded microhabitats; World distribution: cosmopolitan except for arctic-alpine and antarctic areas; Sonoran distribution: coastal California, Arizona, Baja California Sur, Baja California, Chihuahua, Sonora at 1-2550 m.; Note: Psilolechia lucida (Ach.) M. Choisy, another unstratified, totally leprose species, is distinct, e.g., by the production of rhizocarpic acid; reports of the species from the Sonoran region have not been substantiated.  less ↑

 Thallus: crustose, stratified, determinate to indeterminate, thick, composed of rounded, convex, sometimes slightly placodioid cushions, 0.5-2 cm in diam. which may become confluent in part; surface: lemon yellow, composed of a mass of fine soredia, (19-)25-42(-63) µm in diam.; medulla: distinct, yellow in upper part, almost white in lower part; Apothecia: not known in Sonoran material, elsewhere with a constricted base, 0.2-1 mm in diam.; disc: brownish orange, flat to convex, yellowish pruinose; exciple: poorly developed, composed of anastomosing hyphae; epihymenium: yellow, composed of a reticulate layer of richly branched paraphysoids; hymenium: colorless or pale yellow, 60-70 µm tall; paraphysoids: c. 1 µm wide, intertwined, branched; hypothecium: hyaline, fusing into the medulla, hard and opaque; asci: clavate, 8-spored; ascospores: hyaline, 3-septate, obovate, straight, 11-15 x 3 µm; Spot tests: K+ orange, C-, KC-, P+ orange; UV+ dull dark orange; Secondary metabolites: calycin and diffractaic acid.; Substrate and ecology: mainly on bark, also wood and rock in shaded and dry microhabitats, possibly also in places subjected to direct sun and rain; World distribution: western South America (Chile to Peru) and western North America; Sonoran distribution: strictly coastal (often on islands) from northwestern Mexico (Baja California) to southern California (Santa Barbara Co.), sea-level to 400 m.; Note: Chrysothrix granulosa is here reported as new to North America. It is apparently a common species along the Pacific coast from Mexico to as far north as British Columbia.  less ↑