Description: This is one of several lichens that appear as confusing patches of yellow-brown colour on trees especially in sunny, nutrient-rich situations by waysides, along field margins or on trees on estates, golf courses or in former parklands. P. quernea has a very fine sugar-granular texture surrounded by a black border or prothallus. Coupled with its ochre-yellow appearance, this makes it distinctive among the crustose lichens. It is never powdery like its closest lookalikes Lecanora expallens or Ochrolechia inversa. Tiny rounded, red-brown discs are sometimes present and should be looked for.

Key Identification Features:

• Ochre-yellow, slightly cracked thallus of fine sugary granules (check through a hand lens)
• Often surrounded by a black margin; discs convex, tiny, red-brown.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Pyrrhospora quernea at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.