Hi everyone,
I hope it's OK to post these crusts for ID help - let me know if this is too many! :) This Aspicilia-like crust was found on a seaside boulder recently in northern CA and collected with a permit as part of a CALS bioblitz. The combination of small spores, conidia length and K plus Y without norstictic acid crystal formation is not getting me anywhere in the several keys I tried. I hope to eventually get a DNA barcode on the sample, though not sure how helpful that is in Aspicilia. Any ideas would be appreciated! I am pasting my iNat description below:
Collected with permit as part of CALS bioblitz. A white areolate crust growing on boulder near the ocean, the areoles are about 0.5 mm in diameter and many contain small, dark sunken apothecia.
Cross-sections through the apothecia show a hyaline hymenium and hypothecium and a dark green epihymenium. The hymenium measures about 120 microns in height. Several apos were sectioned and unfortunately most asci were empty or contained degenerating spores, but a few "normal-appearing", simple, hyaline spores were seen that measured 10-12 x 7 microns (n=4). Hard to be sure, but likely 8 spores/ascus. Under polarized light, there were large, chunky crystals in the thalline exciple mixed with the photobiont. The true exciple seemed unusually prominent and was colored pale brown, about 50 microns in width.
Spot tests with K showed a yellow reaction under the dissecting scope and a strong but transient flush of bright yellow under the compound scope. No TLC done yet.
A pycnidia cross-section was squashed and revealed numerous long, thin, curved conidia measuring about 17-20 microns in length.
