Solorina crocea (L.) Ach., 1808
| Common name | Orange Chocolate Chip Lichen |
|---|---|
| Code | SOLOCRO |
| Field Characters | Foliose tripartite cephalolichen. Thalli composed of large rounded lobes, often dusky brown with dry and greenish-brown when wet. The photobionts are in two layers, with an upper, irregular green algal layer over a discrete, patchy to continuous layer of Nostoc. Medulla bright orange and visible from below and along the margins from above. No lower cortex, rhizines sparse. Apothecia reddish-brown, surface bulging to depressed, located centrally on the upper surface of the lobes. |
| Similar species |
None in Alberta. |
| Ecology | Terricolous, often in areas where snow pack melt seeps and deposits minerals forming acidic to basic soils. Known strictly from subalpine to alpine habitats in the mountains in Alberta. |
| Chemistry | Medulla with orange pigment, solorinic acid. |
| Molecular support |
Strong at species and genus level, albeit with only 2 representatives of the species. New phylogenetic analyses show this species, along with S. crocoides, as sister to the genus Peltigera, and polyphyletic with other Solorina species (Zheng et al. 2025). |
| Links | |
| Gallery |
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- Solorina crocea, Kananaskis region, AB
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- Solorina crocea, Samuel Glacier Trail_Tatsenshini Alsek Provincial Park, BC
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- Solorina crocea, tundra habitat, Samuel Glacier Trail_Tatsenshini Alsek Provincial Park, BC
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- Solorina crocea, with Peltigera aphthosa, Kananaskis region, AB
