ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Lecanoracea

Genus Lecanora, meaning 'beautiful small bowl' - from the shape of the apothecia

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

Synonym:                    -

Primary habitat:            Wayside trees, rotting wood, old weathered timber

Usual substrata:            Bark, wood

Growth form:                Corticolous, lignicolous

Thallus:                  Crustose

Apothecia:                    Lecanorine

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

Thallus rather variable, thin, almost leprose, somewhat granular to irregularly areolate, forming discrete small patches; colour typically pale yellowish-green, greyish or greenish-grey with inconspicuous prothallus.

Apothecia generally abundant, dispersed or clustered, 0.3-0.8mm dia.; disc flat, becoming slightly convex, very variable in colour, most likely cream, beige-yellowish or pale orange, margin poorly developed and becoming excluded very early, which is an important distinguishing feature of the species.

Lecanora symmicta is a common, although often hard to spot species, that primarily grows on acid-barked trees, rotting and decorticate wood, old fences and weathered timber seats. It is also an early pioneer species of the rougher internodes of young well-lit twigs.