Galapagos Species Database

Thallus saxicolous, placodioid leprose, i.e., developing upon a common, shared hypothallus, delimited by a thin prothallus forming an irregular to ±indistinctly lobed margin, but always lacking a distinct lip, not ‘crisped’; surface pale bluish gray, in the herbarium fading to pale whitish beige; hypothallus thin, arachnoid; rhizohyphae absent; granules ecorticate, ill-defined, powdery [(25–)40–50(–70) µm in diam., relatively uniform in size, occasionally aggregating in clusters (up to 150 µm)], generally loosely packed, typically with some protruding hyphae. Photobiont green, coccoid. Spot tests and chemistry. P, K± sordid yellow, KC+ red, C+ red, UV (pale); lecanoric acid; Flakus & Kukwa (2007) also report angardianic/roccellic acids and 2–4 unidentified anthraquinones present in some, but not all specimens; these were not observed in the Galapagos material. Distribution and ecology. Neotropical; in Galapagos known from a single collection only: in a sheltered, shaded rock cove, at moderate elevation in the upper transition zone of Santa Cruz. Notes. This is the only truly leprose Galapagos species with lecanoric acid, reacting C+ red/KC+ red. Its occurrence at relatively moderate elevation (583 m) is unexpected as the type of the species and subsequent collections were all collected at high elevation in the Andes (Flakus & Kukwa 2007, Flakus et al. 2011).