''Heppia conchiloba'' (common soil ruby) is a gray to light brown squamulous to

foliose Foliose lichen is one of the morphological classes of lichens, which are complex organisms that arise from the symbiotic relationship between fungi and a photosynthetic partner, typically algae. This partnership allows lichen to live in diverse ...

terricolous A terricolous lichen is a lichen that grows on the soil as a substrate. An example is some members of the genus ''Peltigera ''Peltigera'' is a genus of approximately 100 species of foliose lichens in the family Peltigeraceae. Commonly known as ...

(grows on soil)

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The surface appears as if covered in a light dust (

pruinose Pruinescence , or pruinosity, is a "frosted" or dusty-looking coating on top of a surface. It may also be called a pruina (plural: ''pruinae''), from the Latin word for hoarfrost. The adjectival form is pruinose . Entomology In insects, a "blo ...

). The squamules are

peltate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

(like shields attached from the lower surface), up to 8 mm in diameter. There are one to several

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 ...

per lobe, with reddish-brown urn-shaped (

urceolate This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...

) to concave discs, immersed so as to appear like concave spots.

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 all negative. Its entire

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 ...

body is deeply convex, and it is different in color from other members of ''

Heppia ''Heppia'' is a genus of olive, brownish, gray, or blackish squamulose, crustose, or peltate like lichens.Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 1, Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bugartz, F., (eds.) 2001/ref> ''Heppia'' was onc ...

'' and or ''

Peltula ''Peltula'' is a genus of small dark brown to olive or dark gray squamulose lichens that can be saxicolous (grow on rock)) or terricolous (grow on soil). Members of the genus are commonly called rock-olive lichens.Field Guide to California Lichen ...

'', which are olive or brownish-olive.

References

Lichinomycetes Lichen species Lichens described in 1902 Lichens of North America Taxa named by Alexander Zahlbruckner {{Ascomycota-stub