Poplar Sunburst Lichen

(Gallowayella hasseana)

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

 
Poplar Sunburst Lichen
Photo by Luciearl
 
Description

Poplar Sunburst Lichen is a common lichen. It occurs in the United States in the east from Maine to New York, west to North Dakota and Nebraska, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to South Carolina. In the west it occurs on the West Coast from northern Washington to southern California, and in the Rocky Mountains from Montana to New Mexico. It is very common in Minnesota.

Poplar Sunburst Lichen is found in open or partially shaded areas of woodlands. It grows on the bark of hardwood trees, especially trees in the genus Populus. In Minnesota these include balsam poplar, bigtooth aspen, and quaking aspen. Occasionally it grows on rock or on detritus on the ground. It can form a small to medium-sized rosette up to 1¼ (3 cm) wide, or a very large colony.

The vegetative body (thallus) is leaf-like (foliose) and divided into small, overlapping branches (lobes). It grows loosely attached to the substrate (bark). The lobes are flat to convex, round to pointed at the tip, and 1 64 to 1 32 (0.3 to 0.9 mm) wide. The upper surface is smooth to shiny and deep orange when exposed to the sun, orange to yellowish orange in partially shaded areas, and pale yellow or greenish yellow in deep shade. There are tiny, globular chambers (pycnidia) embedded in the thallus with an opening through which fungal spores are released. The pycnidia are inconspicuous and difficult to see because they are the same color as the thallus or only slightly darker. The lower surface of the thallus is white and smooth to somewhat wrinkled. There are abundant, white to yellow, root-like structures (rhizines) attaching the lower surface to the substrate.

Abundant disk-like, spore-producing structures (apothecia) are produced. The disks are stalked, orange, up to (3.5 mm) in diameter, and shaped like a plate. They are smooth at first, eventually developing a ring of hairs on the margin. Each disk has a ring of tissue around it that resembles the tissue of the thallus.

 

Similar Species

 
Ecology

Substrate

Trees

 

Growth Form

Foliose

 

Habitat

Bark

 

Hosts

Deciduous trees, especially poplars (Populus spp.)

Distribution

Distribution Map

 

Sources

4, 7, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77, 81.

1/4/2025    
     

Occurrence

Very common in Minnesota

Taxonomy

Kingdom

Fungi (fungi)

Subkingdom

Dikarya

Phylum

Ascomycota (sac fungi)

Subphylum

Pezizomycotina

Class

Lecanoromycetes (common lichens)

Subclass

Lecanoromycetidae (shield lichens, sunburst lichens, rosette lichens, and allies)

Order

Teloschistales (sunburst lichens and allies)

Suborder

Teloschistineae

Family

Teloschistaceae (sunburst lichens, firedots, and allies)

Subfamily

Xanthorioideae

Genus

Gallowayella

Mycobiont

Gallowayella hasseana

Photobiont

 

   

This species was originally described in 1944 as Xanthoria hasseana. In 2002 it was moved to the genus Xanthomendoza, and in 2003 it was moved to the genus Oxneria. A recent molecular phylogeny study of lichens in the family Teloschistaceae (Fedorenko et al., 2012) erected five new genera. Fifteen species, including this one, were placed in the new genus Gallowayella. The latest move has been widely but not universally accepted.

   

Subordinate Taxa

 

   

Synonyms

Oxneria hasseana

Xanthomendoza hasseana

Xanthoria hasseana

   

Common Names

Poplar Sunburst Lichen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Apothecium

An open, disk-shaped or cup-shaped, reproductive structure, with spore sacs on the upper surface, that produces spores for the fungal partner of a lichen. Plural: apothecia.

 

Foliose

Leaf-like; referring to lichens with thin, flat, leaf-like growths divided into lobes which are free from the substrate.

 

Pycnidium

A small, spherical, flask-shaped, or inversely pear-shaped, asexual reproductive structure produced by fungi in which conidia develop. Plural: pycnidia.

 

Rhizine

A root-like structure of a lichen that attaches the lower layer to the substrate.

 

Thallus

In lichens: The vegetative body of a lichen composed of both the alga and the fungus. In liverworts: a flat, relatively undifferentiated plant body. Plural: thalli.

 

 

 

 

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Luciearl

Poplar Sunburst Lichen
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Luciearl
11/18/2024

Location: Lake Shore, MN

Poplar Sunburst Lichen
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Created: 1/4/2025

Last Updated:

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