Description ⁶

 Thallus: foliose, approximately circular in outline, large, 5-30 cm in diam.; lobes: +flattened and elongate (up to 3 cm wide and up to 5 cm long), imbricate or separate; tips: rounded to subtruncate, often ascending; upper surface: gray, or white to bluish gray when dry, blackish green when wet, smooth, dull, thin to thickly white-gray tomentose, often glabrescent and reddish brown towards center, without isidia or soredia but marginally (and along thallus cracks) phyllidiate; phyllidia: scattered to dense, corticate, warty to squamulose, 0.3-1.5 mm wide; medulla: white, +loosely interwoven hyphae; photobiont: Nostoc; lower surface: white, with anastomosing pale to medium brown, smooth, flattened veins, rhizinate; rhizines: white to brown, irregular, simple or with short lateral branches or remaining downy; Apothecia: frequent, +round to oblong, saddle-shaped, marginal, up to 7 mm in diam.; disc: flat, red-brown to brown, smooth; ascospores: colorless, acicular, 3-5 septate, 30-60 x 3-6 µm; Pycnidia: not seen; Spot tests: all negative; Secondary metabolites: none detected.; Substrate and ecology: among mosses over rock (and soil?) or bark; World distribution: temperate and boreal regions of North America, Europe and Asia; Sonoran distribution: Arizona, southern California, Baja California Sur, and Chihuahua.; Notes: The presence of marginal and laminal phyllidia, as well as its slender, scattered and little-branched rhizines characterize P. praetextata, but these chareacters are to a great extent modifiable, so that the distinction with other species, for example P. fibrilloides, may be difficult to interpret. Also, thalli lacking phyllidia, especially when young, may be problematic to identify. 

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Jason Hollinger, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7147684@N03/5130537231
2. (c) Ondřej Zicha, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/6219.jpg
3. (c) licensed media from BioImages DwCA without owner, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/../image.php?id=11197
4. (c) licensed media from BioImages DwCA without owner, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/../image.php?id=11199
5. (c) licensed media from BioImages DwCA without owner, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/../image.php?id=11201
6. (c) Lichen Unlimited: Arizona State University, Tempe., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/10548788

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• CalPhotos
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• Mushroom Observer
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• NBN Atlas
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• USDA PLANTS database
• Ways of Enlichenment

Range Map

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