Plants of the Gila Wilderness
Presented in Association with the
Western New Mexico University Department
of Natural Sciences
Psora crenata (Taylor) Reinke
Brick Scale
Psora crenata actually has a brick red-brown squamulose thallus, but it is usually found on arid sand in the open where it forms a dense white pruina that obscures the color of the underlying thallus. The squamules are thick and concave with
under-turned edges. The black biatorine apothecia are marginal on the squamules. The photobiont is a green alga-- Myrmecia. Although the specimen we photographed is from Thompson Canyon in the Big Hatchet Range of Hidalgo County, it is found in arid limey sands in various spots in southern New Mexico.
Please click on an image for a larger file.
Psora crenata, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Hidalgo County, Big Hatchet Mtns. south of
Hachita, trail to big Hatchet Peak from Thompson Canyon, April 27, 2020
Psora crenata, photomicrograph of thallus, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Hidalgo County, Big Hatchet Mtns. south of
Hachita, trail to big Hatchet Peak from Thompson Canyon, April 27, 2020
Psora crenata, photomicrograph of thallus, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Hidalgo County, Big Hatchet Mtns. south of
Hachita, trail to big Hatchet Peak from Thompson Canyon, April 27, 2020
Psora crenata, photomicrograph of marginal biatorine apothcecia, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Hidalgo County, Big Hatchet Mtns. south of Hachita, trail to big Hatchet Peak from Thompson Canyon, April 27, 2020
Psora crenata, photomicrograph of cross section of thallus, photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Hidalgo County, Big Hatchet Mtns. south of Hachita, trail to big Hatchet Peak from Thompson Canyon, April 27, 2020
Psora crenata, photomicrograph of algal layer (myrmecia), photo Russ Kleinman & Karen Blisard, Hidalgo County, Big Hatchet Mtns. south of Hachita, trail to big Hatchet Peak from Thompson Canyon, April 27, 2020
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