When: 2007-12-21
Collection location: Dove Creek Hammock, south Key Largo, Monroe Co., Florida, USA [Click for map]
Who: Jason Hollinger (jason)
Herbarium specimen available

Notes: on dead buttonwood bark (Conocarpus erectus)
THALLUS: yellowish, UV+ v yellow, crust filled w/ fine POL+ crystals, K+ forming red acicular crystals
ALGAE: trebouxioid, 5-6 µm
APOTHECIA: black, sessile, contorted, raised black continuous smooth rim, dense yellowish pruina, epihymenium full of polarizing crystals and K+ recrystallizing as radiating acicular crystals, hymenium clear, subhymenium medium brown clearing upward, hypothecium opaque dark brown, no oil in hymenium
SPORES: Physcia-type, brown, smooth, 2-celled, even thin walls, elliptical, 13.4-16 × 7-7.5 µm, 8 per ascus, most deformed

Curtis Bjork helped me ID this. Used R. C. Harris’s More Lichens of Florida to secure genus, then found a key to tropical corticolous Buellia on-line at http://www.bgbm.org/... Our spores are a bit large, but otherwise matches quite well. R. C. Harris keys it to B. melanochlora, however, that species has textured spores.

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Proposed Name		User		Community Vote
Buellia gerontoides (Stirt.) Imshaug		jason		86% (1)
Used references: R. C. Harris’s More Lichens of Florida http://www.bgbm.org/... Based on microscopic features Based on chemical features

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Observation Created: Tue Sep 30 21:09:52 -0700 2008
Last Modified: Tue Sep 30 21:09:52 -0700 2008 by Jason Hollinger (jason)
Viewed: once, last viewed: Wed Dec 31 07:30:04 -0800 2008
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