Description: Named the ‘gilt-edged’ lichen, this rare, rosette-forming, foliose species is related to the Lobarias and Stictas on account of its large, glamorous lobes and dot-like structures (pseudocyphellae) scattered across the underside. In P. aurata the lobes are pale grey (but bright green when wet) with striking golden-yellow soralia occurring along the margins and the same yellow colour exposed wherever the thallus surface is broken. It is Pd-. In Counties Kerry and Cork it occurs on coastal heath and among low-growing mosses.

Key Identification Features:

• Growing commonly to 6cm diam., it is known at once by the bright yellow, marginal soralia and yellow, Pd- medulla
• P. crocata has yellow soralia, but in that species these occur also on the surface of the lobes; it also has a much paler medulla and is Pd + orange; coastal heath.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Crocodia aurata at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.