Circinaria arida

Circinaria arida
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Ascomycota
Class: Ascomycetes
Order: Pertusariales
Family: Megasporaceae
Genus: Circinaria
Species: C. arida
Binomial name
Circinaria arida

Circinaria arida (pebble ball lichen) is a .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.[1][1] It is also found in Eurasia, and arid parts of North America from the southern Great Plains and Midwest to California.[1][2] It is warty (verrucose)with the warts sometimes cracking apart areolate.[2] The warts or areolas have angular to rounded sides.[2] 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.[2] In California it is commonly found growing on pebbles.[1] Each areola has a single sunken black, dust covered (pruinose) fruiting body (apothecium) with a white rim.[1] A thin strip of prothallus sometimes is at the outer edge, forming a narrow dark zone (fimbriate).[2] The similar Aspicilia desertorum has a white pruina (dusty coating) on the apothecia.[2] A thin strip of prothallus sometimes is at the outer edge, forming a narrow dark zone (fimbriate).[2] It is negative for lichen spot tests, I-, K-, P-, C-.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-19500-2, p. 255
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 3, Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bugartz, F., (eds.) 2001,
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