Acarospora socialis
Bright cobblestone lichen, yellow cobblestone
Today’s lichen is the beautiful and bright A. socialis. It is an areolate crustose lichen that forms bright yellow-green contiguous squamules with a pitted and cracked upper surface. In it’s early stages, it forms a cross-like growth pattern before filling in. The round to angular apothecia are immersed in the surface and can bunch close together in the squamules. It has a fairly small range, appearing mainly in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. It is adapted to life in the desert and grows on sandstone, volcanic rock, and granite cliffs and outcrops. There is a lot of variation in the growth forms of a. socialis, and it can even be bleached in coloration, but it is a common pioneering species in its limited range so shouldn’t be too difficult to confuse with look-a-likes like A. shleicheri (which grows on soil), A. chrysops (which prefers higher elevations), and Pleopsidium flavum (which has smaller, lighter colored apothecia). Like many lichen species that contain interesting chemical compounds, A. socialis has been studied for potential pharmaceutical use, and was shown in the lab to exhibit DPPH antioxidant scavenging activities in its extracted ethanol (source). I don’t know what that means, but that’s pretty cool, I guess. And if you want have your mind blown, consider this: this lichen has a host-specific parasitic fungus associated with it. Fungus eating fungus, fungus specifically adapted to live on another fungus. Fungus all the way down. Crazy.
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