Irish lichens

Porpidia hydrophila

Order: Lecanorales       Family: Porpidiaceae

Species: Porpidia hydrophila

Growth type crustose.
Photos: On siliceous rock. Co. Cork and Co. Kerry, SW Ireland

Smooth, finely cracked pale grey or bluish-grey thallus, often tinged orange or greenish with inconspicuous or dark prothallus. Large scattered black apothecia, convex when mature, occasionally pruinose. Abundant black pycnidia. Asci 8-spored with colouless simple spores, 18-23 x 7-9 µm. Microscope photographs below.

Found on siliceous rocks in and beside upland loughs and streams and on flushed moorland rocks.
Chemical reactions negative. Epithecium greenish-blue in section.

Similar: Porpidia cinereoatra, epithecium brownish-green.


Porpidia hydrophila

Porpidia hydrophila

Microscope photographs
Porpidia hydrophila

Porpidia hydrophila, ascospores
Porpidia hydrophila January 2012

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