Description: The genus Epigloea contains some of Ireland’s smallest lichens occurring as minute black-green discs on skins of algae. E. soleiformis occurs in mountainous country on exposed highly acidified soils. Each disc is about the size of this full stop (.) but under the microscope can be squashed to reveal the shape of the spores and the presence of septa. In this species the spores are one-septate, plimsoll-footprint-shaped and slightly waisted. In Ireland, it occurs frequently on the mountains of Connemara.

Key Identification Features:

• Thallus a film of algae, discs miniscule, green-black, the shape of wine gums
• Raw acid soils and low vegetation: mountain slopes, peaks and gullies; also metal-contaminated sites.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Epigloea soleiformis at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.