Description: This easily overlooked brown to green-brown, rosette-forming, foliose lichen with a black undersurface is a frequent coloniser of well-lit twigs and branches. The closely attached thallus is dull, matt, never uniformly glossy with a dense cover of flimsy, cylindrical or shapeless isidia that disintegrate to form soredia (bundles of algae and fungal hyphae). These can erode further to leave white or yellowish spots (abrasions).

Key Identification Features:

• Rather dull non-reflective, brown lobes
• Upper surface is a mixture of flimsy, stick-like isidia, finely granular soredia and pale, eroded spots.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Melanelixia subaurifera at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.