#Porina leptalea

[lichenaday]

Porina leptalea

How are we supposed to discover all the mysterious, unknown lichens out there when they go around being all tiny and inconspicuous like this? Well it's hard, let me tell ya. P. leptalea has a thin, filmy, crustose thallus that is typically gray-green, olive, or brown in color--perfect for blending in with the shady bark and rock it likes to grow on. Often it is little more than a conglomeration of Trentepohlia algal cells held together by teeny-tiny fungal hyphae. It produces perithecia, which are flask-shaped, spore-producing fruiting bodies with a small, pore-like opening. These perithecia are tiny, rounded and slightly raised, and dull orange or red-brown in color. P. leptalea can be found in humid sub-tropical or temperate locations, but the extent of its range isn't really known since it is so hard to find and ID! It's amazing how much life is crammed into every little corner of this world that we don't notice. Worlds within worlds, life within life, worlds within life . . . just tiny dudes everywhere.

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