Irish lichens

Bilimbia sabuletorum

Family: Ramalinaceae

Species: Bilimbia sabuletorum

Growth type crustose, granular.
Photos: Over-growing moss on walls. Co. Cork, SW Ireland.

White or pale grey, coarse or scurfy granular thallus, sometimes evanescent. Convex, +/- rounded apothecia, very variable in colour; discs can be pinkish-brown, brown to dark brown or black. Spores 3-7 septate, 18-40 x 5-8 µm, perispore often finely-warted. Microscope photograph below.
Thallus: chemical reactions negative.

Found growing on plant debris or over moss on calcareous rocks, turf or mortared walls. Also occurs on shaded trunks of old trees.


Bilimbia sabuletorum

Bilimbia sabuletorum

Bilimbia sabuletorum

Microscope photograph
Bilimbia sabuletorum
Above: Bilimbia sabuletorum. August 2009, January and April 2012

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