Baden-Württemberg - Lichens of Wales

quinone containing yellow to red colored part of
the Caloplaca species react blue-red with KOH.
The genus in certain groups still
taxonomically unclear is represented in central
Europe by perhaps 50, in Germany with ca. 75
species, of which however not a few are
insufficiently known. The individual species
reside on truly variable substrate, which mostly
are however dependent on basic, subneutral or
weakly acid conditions. Many are found on
distinctly nutrient rich habitats, such as the
calciphytic rock lichens C. citrina, C. decipiens,
C. coronata, and C. ruderum. In addition C.
alociza, C. arnoldii, c. aurantica, C. chalybaea,
C. cirrochroa, c. dolomitica, C. flavescens, C.
granulosa, C. holocarpa, C. lactea, C. ochracea,
C. polycarpa, C. saxicola, C. variabilis and
identified from the Allgäu C. nubigena and C.
percrocata reside on calcareous rock, commonly
in well lighted habitats. C. proteus is found
predominantly on dolomite. The species C.
teicholyta and C. flavovirescens are typically
limited to calcareous rock. Such substrates are
scarce in the region, however tomb stones, wall
crowns and similar substrates have been used.
On them, new habitats have been found by these
and ecologically related species. C. teicholyta
and C. crenulatella occur almost only on this
kind of anthropogenic habitats.
A greater part of the epilithic Caloplaca
species tolerate dryness and live on relatively
rain protected, often warm vertical surfaces and
overhangs. Many species bargain for an
“alternative habitat” a nutrient rich, eutrophic,
rainy habitat (bird roosts, wall crowns etc.), as in
the case of C. decipiens, C. saxicola and ( less
pronounced) C. flavescens, in the case of others
almost never abandoning the typical niche, such
as C. cirrochroa, C. obliterans, C. proteus, C.
chrysodeta and C. xantholyta.
Silicate rock “favoring” C. arenaria, C.
atroflava, C. crenularia, the C. grimmiae living
as a parasite on Candelariella vitellina as well as
C. irrubescens, C. obliterans, C. scotoplaca, and
C. subpallida: frequently occurring on relatively
SiO2-poor, so called intermediary (“neutral”) or
slightly calcareous or at best “mineral-rich”
silicate rock. C. atroflava lives also
amphibiously on silicate boulders in cool brooks.
C. cerina resides on base-rich barks, where
closely related C. haematites, C. cerinella, C.
cerinelloides, C. holocarpa, C. obscurella, and
the threatened with extinction C. ferruginea, c.
lobulata, C. hungarica and C. herbidella were
earlier found in Heidelberg. C. lucifuga almost
always occurs in rain sheltered bark crevices of
old oaks.
C. tiroliensis (Black Forest), C. sinapisperma
(E.g, Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Jura) and C.
ammiospila (Sudeten) occur residing on moss
and plant detritus in boulder fields sheltered cliff
fissures distributed in the arctic-alpine, very
isolated in the central European mediterranean
region. Growing over mosses and plant detritus
in the dry turfs and on calcareous rocks, C.
cerina var. chloroleuca, is significantly more
widely distributed, often in the montane zone and
penetrating more deeply. The arctic-alpine moss
dwelling C. jungermanniae, C. epiphyta and C.
tetraspora, as well as C. aurea occurring on soil
in rock fissures in the alpine regions of central
and south Europe, are known in Germany only
from the alpine (e.g. Allgäu).
Many Caloplaca species are indigenous in
south Europe and reach the north boundary of the
area in central Europe, thus in southern central
Europe C. aurantica, C. conversa, C. granulosa,
C. irrubescens, C. ochracea, C. polycarpa, C.
xantholyta and C. haematites in southern
Scandinavia (in part only with isolated outposts)
C. biatorina, C. chalybaea, C. cirrochroa, C.
coronata, C. decipiens, C. dolomiticola, C.
erythrocarpa, C. flavescens, C. lactea, C.
teicholyta, C. variabilis, C. lobulata, C. lucifuga,
C. obscurella and C. chrysophthalma. Perhaps
thrusting further toward the north C. subpallida
and C. cerinella. C obliterans occurs in north
and central Europe. C. proteus and C. arnoldii
have their high point in the calcareous mountains
of southern central Europe and the mediterranean
region. C. ferruginea and C. herbidella are
predominantly westward distributed and limited
in continental Europe to oceanic influenced
mountain sites. C. hungarica is known from
south Sweden, in the Alps and their environs. C.
grimmiae is widely distributed in the drier
regions. The area of C. cerina, c. citrina, C.
flavovirescens, C. chrysodeta, C. crenularia, c.
holocarpa and C. saxicola includes the greater
part of Europe.
Genus Characteristics and Determination
Thallus very variable, crustose, mostly clearly
developed, but also in the substrate, also rosette
lobed (placoid), rarely squamulose (in the case of
exotic species even almost shrubby), yellow to
red-orange, rarely whitish to dark gray or black,
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