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Acarospora socialis

Acarospora socialis
Gold Cobblestone Lichen (4752151307).jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Acarosporales
Family: Acarosporaceae
Genus: Acarospora
Species: A. socialis
Binomial name
Acarospora socialis
H. Magn

Acarospora socialis (bright cobblestone lichen) is a usually bright yellow aereolate to squamulose crustose lichen in the Acarosporaceae family that grows up to 10 cm wide, mostly on rock in western North America. It is among the most common lichens in the deserts of Arizona and southern California. It grows on sandstone, intrusive and extrusive igneous rock such as granitics, in all kinds of exposures to sunlight, including vertical rock walls. It is found in North America, including areas of the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert region, to Baja California Sur. It is the most common yellow member of its genus in southwestern North America. It sometimes, but rarely, grows on other soil crusts. It is a pioneer species.

It is variable in its growth pattern.Areoles can be angular to round, sometimes forming lobes. They can be contiguous or scattered. Color is variable - bleached white, green-yellow, and other hades of yellow. It has a lower surface when squamulose, but without a lower cortex. With age, it forms stipes. Each squamule has 0 or one 1 mm round to angular apothecia immersed in it, outside desert habitats, but may have 2 to 10 per in deserts. Two apothecia may merged leaving a peninsula () of thalline tissue through the disc. Apothecia may have lecanorine margins. Apothecia have a flat to concave mostly brown or reddish brown, concave disc.


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