Chrysothrix candelaris
gold dust lichen, mustard powder lichen
Not all that glitters is gold--sometimes what glitters is lichen! A LOT of lichen. C. candelaris is a leprose lichen which grows on bark, wood, and rarely rock in sheltered microhabitats in cool-temperate, undisturbed regions. As you can see from these pictures, it can have a very extensive thallus, covering large areas in a thick, wooly layer, or it can grow in more dispersed, dusty patches across the substrate. It is always bright yellow in color, but can appear more orange or green tinged depending on its moisture level and how much sun exposure it gets. If you get up close and personal with it, you'll notice that C. candelaris is entirely composed of granules of fungal hyphae wrapped around bundles of chlorococcoid algae, primed for dispersal and ready to travel to a new substrate to colonize.
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