''Lobaria quercizans'' or ''Ricasolia quercizans,'' commonly known as the smooth lungwort, is a macrolichen in the family

Peltigeraceae The Peltigeraceae are a family of lichens in the order Peltigerales. The Peltigeraceae, which contains 15 genera and about 600 species, has recently (2018) been emended to include the families Lobariaceae and Nephromataceae. Many Peltigeraceae sp ...

. It forms large, smooth, grey (pale green when wet) growths that often have abundant red-brown

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 ...

Distribution

Most records are from eastern North America but there are also isolated probable location records from South America (Bolivia), eastern Asia (China, Korea, Russian Manchuria). In eastern North America, it is found from

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

to northern

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and west to eastern

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. An outlying population is found in the

Ouachita Mountains The Ouachita Mountains (), simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thru ...

Ecology

In eastern North America, ''L. quercizans'' is found primarily on the bark of

deciduous tree In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

s, usually maples ('' Acer'' species). In the southern parts of its range '' A. saccharum'' (sugar maple) is preferred. Further north, where there is less ''A. saccharum'', '' A. rubrum'' (red maple) is favoured.

Uses

The lichen is used for food and medicine by the

Menomini The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...

people of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

References

External links

USDA plant profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15650888 Lobaria Lichen species Lichens of North America Lichens of South America Lichens described in 1803 Lichens of Asia Taxa named by André Michaux