Description: This mosaic-forming upland lichen of sheltered, vertical siliceous rocks and cliffs is usually told by the alternating black and grey chequerboard mottling giving the thallus a banded appearance. The reason for this attractive configuration is the grey, sorediate areoles (‘islands’ of thallus) surrounded on all sides by the black colour of the prothallus (‘underfelt-layer’). Very local in Ireland, for example, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry.

Key Identification Features:

• Black and grey chequerboard appearance of the thallus
• Vertical acid rock: mountains, the sides of low, ravine-like stretches of river corridor.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Fuscidea gothoburgensis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.