''Pleopsidium flavum'' (gold cobblestone lichen)The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, John Muir Laws , 2007 is a distinctively colored, bright lemon-yellow to
chartreuse
Chartreuse () may refer to:
Food and drink
* Chartreuse (liqueur), a French liqueur
* Chartreuse (dish), a French dish of vegetables or meat tightly wrapped in vegetable leaves and cooked in a mould
Religion
* Carthusians, a Catholic religi ...
Crustose Rock Lichens, Wayne P. Armstrong, Wayne's World online textbook of natural history /ref> crustose lichen, crustose
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.montane to
alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...
) on vertical or overhanging hard
felsic
In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, whi ...
rock (e.g.
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
) in western North America.Mosses Lichens & Ferns of Northwest North America, Dale H. Vitt, Janet E. marsh, Robin B. Bovey, Lone Pine Publishing Company, Its
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 ...
grows in a circular outwardly radiating pattern ( placodioid), with 1mm wide lobed edges.
This is the identity of the vivid, lime-green lichens often photographed on granite boulders in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge of Oklahoma.According to Prof. Wayne Armstrong of Mount Palomar College, This lichen only grows "a few millimeters" per century. , making it the slowest growing of all known plants (sensu lato).
It was formerly classified as ''
Acarospora
''Acarospora'' is a genus of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the family Acarosporaceae. Most species in the genus are crustose lichens that grow on rocks in open and arid places all over the world. They may look like a cobblestone road or cracked ...
chlorophana''. It is in the ''
Pleopsidium
''Pleopsidium'' is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Acarosporaceae. The widespread genus, which contains four species, was circumscribed by lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber
Gustav Wilhelm Körber (10 January 1817, Hirschberg – ...
''
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of the
Acarosporaceae
The Acarosporaceae are a family of fungi in the order Acarosporales. Members of this family have a widespread distribution, and are mostly lichenized with green algae. According to a 2021 estimate, the family contains 11 genera and about 260 spe ...
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
.
It is similar to ''
Acarospora schleicheri
''Acarospora schleicheri'', the soil paint lichen, is a bleached to bright yellow areolate to squamulose lichen that commonly grows to on soil (terricolous) in arid habitats of southern California and Baja California, also in Europe and Africa. ...
'', which grows on soil (
terricolous lichen 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 ...
) and rarely on rock, and to ''
Pleopsidium chlorophanum
''Pleopsidium chlorophanum'' (gold cobblestone lichen)The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada, John Muir Laws , 2007 is a distinctively colored, bright lemon-yellow to chartreuseCrustose Rock Lichens, Wayne P. Armstrong, Wayne's World online te ...
'', which favors dry
arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
or alpine
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...