Cinder Lichen

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked
SNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

Description

Cinder Lichen is a common sunken disk lichen. It occurs worldwide on every continent including Antarctica. It is most common in North America and Europe. It occurs throughout the United States, but it is mostly absent from the Great Plains and the Great Basin. It is common in Minnesota.

Cinder Lichen grows in open areas on rock that has silica (SiO2) as its principal constituent (siliceous), including granite, slate, sandstone, quartzite, brownstone, bluestone, and volcanic rock.

The vegetative body (thallus) is thin to thick and ⅝″ to 6″ (1.5 to 15 cm) in diameter. It is separated by cracks into distinct, island-like areas (areolate). The islands (areoles) are usually angular, sometimes irregular, flat or slightly convex, and 1⁄128″ to 1⁄16″ (0.2 to 2.0 mm) wide and more or less round. They are closely spaced, almost touching, but separated by distinct cracks. The upper surface is gray, whitish gray, or almost white, sometimes slightly tinged with yellow.

Spore-bearing reproductive structures (apothecia) are usually numerous. They are 1⁄256″ to 1⁄16″ (0.1 to 1.6 mm) in diameter. The disk is usually black, rarely brownish black, and it is usually concave, sometimes flat, rarely convex. It is flat with the surface of the thallus. This is the feature that gives the genus its common name. It sometimes has thin white dust (pruinescence) on the surface, but it usually does not. A single areole may have 1 to 3, rarely up to 10 apothecia, and these blend together.

Similar Species

Ecology

Substrate

Rock

Growth Form

Crustose

Habitat

Open areas

Hosts

Siliceous rock, including granite, slate, sandstone, quartzite, brownstone, and bluestone

Distribution

Sources

24, 30, 77, 83.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu. Accessed 4/19/2025).

The Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria (CNALH) https://lichenportal.org/cnalh/index.php. Accessed 4/19/2025.

Mycology Collections Portal (MyCoPortal) https://www.mycoportal.org/portal/collections/index.php). Accessed 4/19/2025.

Aspicilia cinerea (L.) Körb. in GBIF Secretariat (2023). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org. Accessed 4/19/2025.

Fink, B. (1910). The Lichens of Minnesota. United States: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Fink, Bruce. (1899). Contributions to a Knowledge of the Lichens of Minnesota. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/177988.