Common name :
Lichen

Scientific name :
Sticta ainoae
D. J. Galloway & J. Pickering
Substrate and Habitat:
Sticta ainoae is frequent over mossy trunks, branches and wood in open to moderate shaded humid forests, almost exclusively in the Valdivian Rainforest.

Description:
Thallus foliose, with narrowlly branching erect to spreading lobes that are often palm-shaped. Lobes narrow, elongate, evenly tapered, branching irregularly, sometimes folded down the center, to form a palm or divided leaf appearance. Upper surface shiny light green to tan when dry to dark green when wet. Upper surface texture smooth, without hairs or scabrid areas.

 
     
Upper surface of Sticta ainoae, showing its apothecia.  
 

Lower surface dark brown and evenly tomentose except at extreme lobe tips, which are pale and somewhat smooth. Cyphellae pale spots, each with a white in center and a somewhat narrower, constricted opening. contrasting with darker lower surface, dispersed throughout lower surface, appearing Margins entire, without isidia or soredia. Apothecia common, reddish to tan, over upper surface towards lobe tips. Medulla white. Photobiont green.

 

  
     
Lower surface of Sticta ainoae.
         
       
Tomentose lower surface of Sticta ainoae.  
           
Detail of a tomentose lower surface of Sticta ainoae.    
                 
   
Written by Peter Nelson and Tim Wheeler.
Photographs by Tim Wheeler.
  



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