ASCOMYCOTA | LICHINOMYCETES > CANDELARIALES > Candelariaceae

Genus Candelariella, meaning 'little candle'

Common name:            Members of the genus collectively known as 'goldenspeck lichens'

Synonym:                    -

Habitat:                         Coastal for this entry, but mostly upland

Substrata:                     Rock

Growth form:                Saxicolous

Thallus:                  Crustose

Apothecia:                    Lecanorine, although rarely fertile

BLS identity rating:        Graded 2/5 (visual identification relatively easy with care)

Thallus thick, areolate with deep cracking, areoles have a convex top and are made up of compacted granules, golden to greenish-yellow when dry, turning yellow-lemon when wet, never orange; rarely fertile; apothecia if present will be about 1mm dia., with a pale to dirty-yellow disc usually with a yellow margin, which become crenulate.

Generally considered as an uncommon rural upland species, but also occurring in some coastal locations on nutrient-rich siliceous rocks where birds perch.

In Europe it could very easily be confused with the very similar to Caloplaca britannica, but that species is rarely recorded in Britain with just one confirmed observation from Dorset around twenty years ago.