Plancia ëd Candelaria concolor (Dicks.) Stein

Descrission:

Slo.: ? - Habitat: mountain pasture, slightly inclined mountain slope, south aspect; sunny, relatively warm and dry place; colluvial, skeletal, calcareous ground; partly protected from direct rain by tree canopy; average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevations 610 m (2.000 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: Bark of living branch of a standing alone Ostrya carpinifolia. Comment: This micro-beauty usually appears in discrete, suborbicular, flat cushions, which are quite small, less than 10 mm in diameter. But, it can be also abundant, in larger, irregular, widespread fragments, sometimes confluent and covering the whole small branches circumferentially. When looked through a hand lens it is an incredible natural filigree of golden lobes set in a delicate and stochastic ornament. The lobes are attached to the bark with scattered, white, simple rhizines. This is one of lichens, which can be easily recognized by habit only, without microscope and chemical tests. Eventually it can be confused with very small lobed Xanthoria species, where a test with K solves the dilemma. Candelaria concolor is K negative.Ref.:(1) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Wrttembergs, Teil.1., Ulmer (1995), p 242.(2) F.S. Dobson, Lichens, The Richmonds Publishing Ca.LTD (2005), p 110.(3) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland, The British Lichen Society, (2009), p 275.(4) I.M. Brodo, S.D. Sharnoff, S. Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p 205.