Flavopunctelia flaventior

Diane L. Haughland

Flavopunctelia flaventior (Stirt.) Hale, 1984

Common name	Speckled Greenshield	Code: FLAVFLA
Field Characters	Large, leafy, yellow chlorolichen. Thalli appressed to ruffled, forming colonies over 30 cm across. Lobes pale yellow, rounded, to 3 cm across. Upper cortex pale yellow, smooth to wrinkled/reticulate, with obvious punctiform marginal pseudocyphellae. Soredia present, granular, in laminal soralia arising from pseudocyphellae and/or marginal, labriform or crescent-shaped soralia. Lower cortex typically brown to blackened centrally with sparse, simple rhizines, often absent near the margin. Apothecia rare, relatively large, on stipes, with brown disc and nubby, sorediate yellow thalline margins.
Similar species	Flavopunctelia soredica: upper cortex with obscure, sparse laminal pseudocyphellae, soredia more farinose in primarily marginal, crescent-shaped, soralia. Flavoparmelia caperata: lacks pseudocyephellae and has a PD+ red medulla. Punctelia caseana: grey-green upper cortex and pale, tan, or pale brown lower cortex with rhizines to the lobe edge. Usnic-acid deficient shade forms of Flavopunctelia can closely resemble Punctelia.
Ecology	Epiphytic or on downed wood, both deciduous and coniferous, rarely on rock. Common in parts of the boreal and parkland regions. It can be very abundant in urban naturalized parks (Haughland et al. 2022).
Chemistry	Upper cortex KC+yellow, K- or K+ pale yellow, C-, PD-, UV- (usnic acid). Medulla C+ red, KC+ red, K-, PD-, UV- (lecanoric acid).
Molecular support	Molecular support: no new sequences generated. The separation from F. soredica is well-supported in Haughland et al. 2022.
Links	ABMI Biodiversity Browser Consortium of Lichen Herbaria Ways of Enlichenment Photo Gallery
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