#Kuettlingeria teicholyta

[lichenaday]

Kuettlingeria teicholyta

This lichen falls somewhere in the space between crustose and foliose lichens, falling closer to the crustose side with its continuous to areolate-rimose centeral thallus, but still nodding in the direction of foliose with its stubby, lobe-like structures around the thallus margin. The upper surface is pale gray in color, with abundant blastidia (globular asexual propagules containing both fungal and algal cells) covering the center of the orbicular patch. Most lichens have soredia (loose conglomeration of hyphal tissue and algal cells) or isidia (structured chunk of lichen thallus material containing fungal and algal cells), but blastidia is somewhere in between those two. It only rarely produces apothecia, which have a deep red disc and an orange proper margin (rim made of apothecial tissue), and sometimes a thin, blastidiate thalline margin (rim made of thallus tissue). Really, K. teicholyta seems to have a hard time just choosing ONE THING. It loves to sit in the margins and deny simple classification. You can find this unique little paradigm-shifter growing on calciferous rock and human-made structures warm-temperate regions of the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

images: source | source | source | source

info: source | source