Description: This is an inconspicuous lichen of soil banks and cuttings both of recently disturbed and more dated origin. The filmy, green-brown thallus occurs on mosses or leafy liverworts that have attempted to establish in tiny pockets across the surface. B. gloeocapsa is richly fertile with the small pale yellow discs reminiscent of Dimerella pineti or Gyalecta truncigena. Spores are three- to four-septate. In Ireland, there are very few records of species.

Key Identification Features:

• Small pale yellow discs on a shiny, spongy thallus of moribund bryophytes
• On sides of soily banks exposed along stream courses, forestry roads or moorland tracks.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

Distribution Map from NBN: Cryptodiscus gloeocapsa at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Cryptodiscus gloeocapsa at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.