ASCOMYCOTA | EUROTIOMYCETES > VERRUCARIALES > Verrucariaceae

Genus Verrucaria, meaning 'wart-like'

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

Synonyms:                     -

Habitat:                          Urban (for this entry)

Substrata:                      Rock, cement and mortar

Growth form:                 Saxicolous

Thallus:                  Crustose

Perithecia:                      Partially immersed

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

Thallus relatively thin, and often lightly cracked particularly when well-developed, generally smooth, but maybe rough in some areas; pale grey-greenish with grey-whitish areas, slightly brownish in places, with a variable white prothallus; perithecia numerous, partially immersed, forming low and indistinct to conical-hemispherical projections, blackish, 0.2-0.4mm dia., rounded or frequently flattened, often irregular and sometimes reduced to a ring with a grey-whitish centre.

Verrucaria elaeina is relatively common and locally abundant in many areas, occurring in both natural and urban habitats on limestone, siliceous rock, concrete and brick. Often found in gardens and similar places growing on shaded stones beneath herbaceous vegetation, also on terracotta pots and occasionally on damp walls. 

It is one of the easier Verrucaria species to visually recognise with the naked eye.