Caloplaca saxicola is a small bright orange crustose lichen that grows on rock all over the world.[2]: 245–6  It is commonly called rock firedot lichen,[2]: 245  jewel lichen or rock jewel lichen.

Caloplaca saxicola
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Teloschistales
Family: Teloschistaceae
Genus: Caloplaca
Species:
C. saxicola
Binomial name
Caloplaca saxicola
(Hoffm.) Nordin
Synonyms[1]
  • Psora saxicola Hoffm.

It has short, inflated looking elongate 1–2 mm and .3-.1 mm wide lobes that have an abrupt margin at the edge, and no prothallus.[3] It lacks isidia or soredia.[3] Apothecia may be immersed in the thallus or adnate to it, with rims of thallus-like tissue (lecanorine) with orange, flat, .4–1 mm wide epruinose discs.[3] Aptohecia develop near the lobe tips. C. ignea and C. impolita are similar but bigger, and have apothecia that form near the thallus center.[3]

In California, it is one of the most common saxicolous lichens.[2]: 245–6  This lichen occurs over a portion of northern North America.[4] A specific example occurrence is within the northern reaches of the Canadian Boreal forests, where Black Spruce is a dominant tree.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Caloplaca saxicola in Index Fungorum
  2. ^ a b c Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-19500-2
  3. ^ a b c d Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 3, Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bugartz, F., (eds.) 2001, [1]
  4. ^ Irwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff, Stephen Sharnoff and Susan Laurie-Bourque. 2001
  5. ^ Michael Hogan. 2008. Black Spruce: Picea mariana, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg Archived October 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine