ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECIDEALES > Lecideaceae

Genus Lecidea, meaning 'shape of a little disc' - from the appearance of the apothecia

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

Synonym:                    -

Habitat:                         Montane, and upland

Substrata:                     Rock

Growth form:                Saxicolous

Thallus:                  Crustose

Apothecia:                    Lecideine

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

Thallus usually thin, cracked and areolate, rarely delimited by a thin blackish hypothallus, grey to bluish-grey, although usually stained rusty brown-orange in parts or often entirely covered.

Apothecia immersed at first, becoming sessile, irregularly shaped, up to 2mm dia., disc flat to slightly convex, dark, brown to black, with concolourous, relatively distinct, but variable, thin to thick, thalline margin.

I do not believe that this species is found locally (East Dorset and New Forest area), but it does occur in Britain, notably in Scotland, Wales, parts of the north and south west. Here it may be found on siliceous rock, especially when iron-rich. In Austria, where these photos were taken, it's listed as an "ecologically wide-ranging, pioneer species found on vertical to slightly inclined surfaces of acid siliceous rocks close to the ground, also on iron-rich substrata, most frequently above the montane belt; widespread throughout the siliceous Alps".