#alpine lichen

[drhoz]

#2310 - Rhizocarpon sp. - Map Lichens

Crustose lichens found growing on rock, and sometimes parasitising other lichens. The colonies usually have a black border of fungal hyphae - leading to the geographic name. Most common in arctic and alpine environments, but also found throughout temperate, subtropical, and sometimes tropical biomes.

A genus of uncertain size - the species are variable in appearance, and many have been synonimised, and molecular evidence strongly suggests that some currently nested within the genus should be split off. Current estimates put the count at somewhere between 75 and 400.

Mount Ruapehu, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

[lichenaday]

Stereocaulon alpinum 

Lichen morphology often gets weird. And we really don’t know why a lot of the time. Why does S. alpinum look like scrawny cauliflower? No idea! But I am so glad that it does. This fruticose lichen forms pseudopodetia up to 4 cm long, growing straight up, or parallel to the substrate. The pseudopodetia are covered in tomentum toward the base, and phyllocladia (”leaf branches”) growing thicker toward the apices. These phyllocladia are granulose, and can be pale white or gray with yellow or blue hues. Round, dark apothecia grow in the tops of the branches. S. alpinum is circumpolar, and grows on soil in Arctic-alpine habitats. This lichen produces some unique chemicals that have antimicrobial and antibacterial activities. I can’t wait to go hiking in the Alps this summer so I can find this guy and gently stroke their pseudopoetia. 

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