Description: This crustose lichen has distinctive upland credentials and should be searched for in the mountains on mineralised siliceous rocks (schists), boulders and on dry stone walls. It often occurs in small patches (some < 1cm diam.) squeezed between other lichens, but the small, grey-blue to olivaceous-brown, Pd+ orange stains attract immediate attention. The small, black, oval discs are numerous and distorted, persistently concave, like hollowed-out wine gums. Under the microscope the K+ bright blue-aeruginose epihymenium is striking. Recorded from north-east Ireland.

Key Identification Features:

• Thallus small, beige- to grey-blue-green to brown; Pd+ orange
• Discs, small (0.1-0.5mm diam.), black, oval, concave; epihymenium in K squash, brilliant blue-green.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Carbonea vorticosa at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.