Plant Guide > Mosses and Lichens > Lichens > Genus Physcia > Physcia Leucomela Lichen

Physcia Leucomela Lichen

Physcia leucomela, (L.) Michx.

Habit and habitat.-On trees, most common southward.

Vegetative organs (thallus). - Ascendant and elongated, mostly smooth, often narrowly linear, the densely entangled lobes irregularly divided; beneath white, the margins beset with strong, branched blackish fibrils.

Fruiting organs (apothecia).--Medium-sized, on short pedicels, the disk white, powdery, the border lobed; the spores are bilocular.

Name.-From the Greek; white, and black, referring to the strong contrast between fibrils and surface.