Anaptychia setifera

Location Summary

Substrate: On bark & wood. On limy cliffs, in full sun or partial shade especially overlooking streams or lakes; rarely on shrubs.

Range: Mainly north of US, rare on immediate coast.

Identification Characteristics

Description:  ; Soredia & isidia absent; lower surface white, with a fibrous groove or channel (lacking a cortex); rhizines absent.  Apothecia frequent, raised, with concave, heavily pruinose disks & abundantly  ciliate margins.  Lobes lacking hyaline hairs but with long cilia.

Color:  pale gray to smoky gray-brown.

Shape:  Thallus foliose to fruticose, consisting of very long, narrow, abundantly branched lobes in cushions or, more frequently, in pendant clumps up to 8 cm long.  Has a slightly fuzzy surface.  Lobes 0.3-0.5 (-1.5) mm wide.

Cilia:  Long, tapered, pale gray to balck, unbranched or forked cilia all along the margins.

Lookalikes: Heterodermia leucomela has similar long, linear lobes & long, black cilia, but it is usually paler & the lobe tips are sorediate.  Its cortex is K+ yellow (atranorin).  The rare Californian species Teloschistes californicus has fuzzy, gray, subfruticose branches, but they are much broader & irregular & are not ciliate.

Bibliography: Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest, by Bruce McCune & Linda Geiser, Lichens of North America, by Brodo, Sharnoff, & Sharnoff

 

Database Entry:  Distance Everheart 12-26-13