ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Parmeliaceae

Genus Flavoparmelia, meaning 'yellow Parmelia' from the colour of the thallus

Common name:            -

Synonym:                     Parmelia soredians

Habitat:                         Woodland and wayside trees, primarily

Substrata:                     Bark and worked wood, but also rocks and stone

Growth form:                Corticolous and Saxicolous

Thallus:                  Foliose

Apothecia:                    Lecanorine

BLS identity rating:        Graded 2/5 (visual identification possible, but spot testing recommended to be sure)

Thallus normally in the form of a neat rosette up to 9cm or so in diameter, which is a fair bit smaller than the average size of Flavoparmelia caperata and, unlike that species, it is normally pretty much self-contained rather than spreading into more extensive patches; it is much the same colour, yellow-grey to yellow-green, to almost apple-green when wet; the lobes are narrower, typically no more than 7mm wide, appressed and centrally crowded, and have patches of fine soredia on the surface; the underside is black, but brown towards the apices.

Notwithstanding, the need to spot test (medulla K+ yellow, turning red, whereas in Flavoparmelia caperata it's more of a dirty-yellow colour with no red reaction), the two species can generally be separated by sight, as Flavoparmelia caperata is usually larger, with less appressed, broader, wrinkled lobes with coarse, rather than fine, soredia.

Locally common, although mostly southern and/or coastal, primarily occurring on trees and other wood surfaces, but also on exposed acid rocks and the tops of tombstones.