James Stirton

Usnea filipendula, the fishbone beard lichen, is a pale gray-green fruticose lichen with a pendant growth form, growing in up to 20 cm many-branching tassels hanging from the bark of trees. In California, it mostly grows on mostly conifer in the Coast Range, but also in the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada range. It lacks apothecia. It is similar to Usnea scabrata, but is darker, has a thicker cortex, and different chemistry. Lichen spot tests are K+ red, KC−, C−, and P+ yellow.

Cryptothecia is a genus of white to greenish crustose lichens that grow on bark, wood, or leaves, in tropical or subtropical areas worldwide. It has a conspicuous prothallus that develops around its periphery which can be bright red in some species, hence the common name wreath lichen. The main vegetative body (thallus) lacks a cortex (ecorticate and is often immersed in the substrate or byssoid (whispy, like teased wool). The medulla is white, well defined, and often peppered with calcium oxalate crystals. Ascomata are not well defined, being cushions of soft white mycelium immersed in the

Usnea rubicunda, commonly known as the red beard lichen, is a type of arboreal lichen native to temperate regions in North, Central and South America, as well as Europe, Eastern Asia, and North Africa. This fruticose species forms hair-like hanging clusters that are orange to red in color. It is at risk of extirpation in Canada. In Nepal, Usnea rubicunda has been reported at 2,700 m elevation in a compilation of published records.

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Pyxine subcinerea is a species of foliose lichen in the family Caliciaceae. It has a pantropical distribution, and typically grows on bark, but less commonly on rocks. The lichen is characterised by its yellow medulla, soralia on the margins on the lobes that make up the thallus, and the presence of the chemical lichexanthone in the cortex.

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Calycidium is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Sphaerophoraceae. It has two species. It is one of the few lichen genera containing foliose (leafy) species that produce a mazaedium – a powdery mass of spores. Both species occur in Australasia and South America, where they grow on tree bark or on mosses.

Usnea mutabilis is a grayish-yellowish pale green, unequally branching, shrubby (fruticose) 3–7 cm long lichen commonly anchored on holdfasts on trees, mostly in eastern North America, sometimes in chaparral shrubs or pines in California. It is darker green than other members of the genus Usnea. The surface is covered with isolated, or clusters of, isidia. It lacks apothecia. The common name is bloody beard lichen. The thick axis and medulla are dull red.

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Schistophoron is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Graphidaceae. It comprises five species. Established in 1876 by the Scottish naturalist James Stirton, these unusual lichens grow exclusively on the undersides of living leaves in tropical rainforests, forming thin grey-green crusts with small slit-like fruiting structures. Found across the tropics from the Americas to Africa and Southeast Asia, they serve as indicators of undisturbed forest conditions due to their sensitivity to canopy opening and changes in humidity.

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Miltidea is a fungal genus in the family Agyriaceae. It comprises the single species Miltidea ceroplasta, a crustose lichen. Originally proposed in 1898 to encompass a wide array of red-fruited lichens, the genus was later found to be based on a fundamentally flawed concept, and was resurrected in 1984 by Josef Hafellner with a much narrower circumscription limited to just a single species. This species occurs in the cool temperate rainforests of Tasmania, New Zealand, and Chile, where it grows primarily on the smooth bark of rainforest trees at lower elevations. The lichen is distinguished

Psoromidium is a genus of cyanolichens in the family Pannariaceae. It has three species.

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