''Candelariella vitellina'' is a common and widespread green-yellow to orange-yellow
crustose
Crustose is a habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the substrates at all points. ''Crustose'' is found on rocks and ...
areolate
Lichens are composite organisms made up of multiple species: a fungal partner, one or more photosynthetic partners, and sometimes a basidiomycete yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their ...
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. /ref> It grows on non-
calcareous rock
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...
, wood, and bark. It often has tiny lobate areoles in the shape of lion claws. The areoles may be flat or convex. Its sexual reproduction structures (
apothecia
An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mo ...
) are a 0.35–1.0 mm-wide disc, darker yellow than the
thallus
Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...
, rimmed with thallus-like tissue
lecanorine
A lichen has lecanorine fruiting body parts if they are shaped like a plate with a ring around them, and that ring is made of tissue similar to the main non-fruiting body part of the lichen.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale ...
, flat but becoming convex with age.
Lichen spot test
A spot test in lichenology is a spot analysis used to help identify lichens. It is performed by placing a drop of a chemical on different parts of the lichen and noting the colour change (or lack thereof) associated with application of the chemical ...
s are K+ reddish, KC−, and C−. It produces calycin,
pulvinic acid
Pulvinic acids are natural chemical pigments found in some lichens, derived biosynthetically from the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine, via dimerization and oxidative ring-cleavage of aryl pyruvic acids, a process that also produ ...
, pulvinic dilactone and
vulpinic acid
Vulpinic acid is a natural product first found in and important in the symbiosis underlying the biology of lichens. It is a simple methyl ester derivative of its parent compound, pulvinic acid, and a close relative of pulvinone, both of which de ...
as
secondary metabolites
Secondary metabolites, also called specialised metabolites, toxins, secondary products, or natural products, are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved in the nor ...
.
In
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, it prefers growing on granite, but can also be found on wood (rarely on bark) and other kinds of rock.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014,
''Candelariella vitellina'' looks like a miniature version of '' C. rosulans''. It can be distinguished by ''C. vitanela'' having a visible
exciple
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.C. lutella''.
It is a known host to the
lichenicolous fungus
A lichenicolous fungus is a parasitic fungus that only lives on lichen as the host. A lichenicolous fungus is not the same as the fungus that is the component of the lichen, which is known as a lichenized fungus. They are most commonly specific to ...
species ''
Carbonea vitellinaria
''Carbonea vitellaria'' is a species of lichenicolous fungus belonging to the family Lecanoraceae. It has a worldwide distribution. In Iceland it has been reported growing on '' Candelariella vitellina'' near Egilsstaðir
Egilsstaðir () is a ...