Caloplaca erythrocarpa

[ralfwagner]

Hello,

this lichen grew on rests of a wall of the ruin of Fort de Buoux, Luberon, Provence, France.

- Habitus. Thallus thick, white, cracked, clearly limited. Photobiont coccoide green algae. Apothecia numerous, densely together, ca. 1 mm diameter, red disc , often with thalline exiple. Spores 12 - 18 x 5 - 9 µm.
Mediterrane on limestones, here together with Aspicilia calcarea.



- Some cross sections of the apothecium. It is remarkakable, that always two apthecia grow together. Staining with Lactophenol-Methylblue-Acidfuchsin.







- Spores 12 - 18 x 5 - 9 µm. This kind of spores are typical for the genus Caloplaca ans can serve as an identifying criterium. Staining with Lactophenol-Methylblue-Acidfuchsin.

[Rylee Isitt]

Nice!

I took a fungi and lichens course not so long ago, but when it came to the lichen we didn't do much microscopic work beyond using dissecting microscopes.

I did look at a fair amount of spores for non-lichen fungi, and used them for ID, but didn't do any staining. Size, shape, number of oil drops, and ornamentation was more or less all we looked at.

I imagine the process is much the same for lichen? Do you get the spores from a simple scraping of the apothecia surface?

[BJ]

Ralf,

excellent as always - thank you!

Brian

[ralfwagner]

Rylee,

you are right, in most cases lichens can be treated like fungi, indeed they are fungi. You can get the spores from a simple scraping of the apothecia surface here, too. Another way is to press a little piece of apothecium between 2 slides and then add a drop of water and a coverslip to one of them. Instead of warter it also usual to mount in 15% KOH. This will clear the specimen.

The spores I am showing here were photographed directly in the one of the apothecium cross sections and then I isolated them digitally with GIMP.

@Brian: Thanks!