Acarospora

Acarospora
Acarospora glaucocarpa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Lecanoromycetes
Order: Acarosporales
Family: Acarosporaceae
Genus: Acarospora
A.Massal. (1852)
Type species
Acarospora schleicheri
(Ach.) A.Massal. (1852)
Synonyms[1]

Acarospora is a genus of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the family Acarosporaceae. Most species in the genus are crustose lichens that grow on rocks in open and arid places all over the world.[2] They may look like a cobblestone road or cracked up old paint, and are commonly called cobblestone lichens or cracked lichens.[3]: 216 [4] They usually grow on rock (are "saxicolous"), but some grow on soil (terricolous) or on other lichens.[2][3]: 216  Some species in the genus are fungi that live as parasites on other lichens (lichenicolous fungi).[2] Acarospora is a widely distributed genus, with about 128 species according to a 2008 estimate.[5]

Species in Acarospora may be shiny as if covered with a glossy varnish, or dull and powdery looking. They have a diverse range of colors, from the brilliant yellow bright cobblestone lichen, to the dark reddish-brown mountain cobblestone lichen, or they can appear tan, gray, or white, from a dusty-looking coating (pruina).[3]: 216  They may grow in crustose forms like a warty surface (verrucose), like cracking-up old crust of paint (rimose), like a bunch of "islands" in a dry lake bed (areolate), like the flakes of cracking up paint are peeling up at the edges (sub-squamulous), or like the flakes are growing over others like scales (squamulous).

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Species Fungorum synonymy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference ALFGSDR was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-19500-2
  4. ^ Name Search Results for Scientific Name Acarospora, USDA
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kirk 2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).