Thanks Alan,
it's makes me feel a bit better that it wasn't something simple
Is O. parella a typical upper shore lichen - it doesn't mention that as a habitat for it in my book (Dobson) - I thought it would have been a fairly specialist habitat.
I'm suprised anything managed to find any space amongst all the Verrucaria!
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanS  Hi Aaron,
I have puzzled over this since you posted it and I am still puzzled. The main part of the lichen looks like Ochrolechia parella, though not too healthy.
But no Ochrolechia has that yellow component. Lichens often have a differently coloured prothallus, an initial colonisation stage that continues around the edge of a colony, but I don't know of any white lichen that has a yellow prothallus. It seems to me that the yellow must be another lichen, most likely a Caloplaca, or possibly a Leproplaca, but if so, what is going on? Is one lichen taking over from another, trying to steal its algae? But Caloplaca and Ochrolechia have different photobionts. Are they both competing for a space that happens to exist within the Verrucaria maura colony (the black lichen)?
I dunno. It's all part of nature's dynamics.
(Well, it's the sort of answer students usually accept.)
Alan |