Desert Crater Lichen

Diploschistes diacapsis (also called the desert crater lichen) is a ground-dwelling crustose lichen in the family Graphidaceae. It forms a thick, pale grey to greyish-white crust that cracks into small patches. Its fruiting bodies (apothecia) are sunken and often dusted with a powdery coating (pruina), and it produces brown, muriform (multichambered) ascospores. The lichen body (thallus) contains lecanoric and diploschistesic acids. The species typically grows in arid and semi-arid regions on calcium-rich or gypsum soils, where it can form extensive pale carpets within biological soil crusts (surface communities of lichens, mosses, and microbes that bind soil).

From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Is it poisonous?

We have no record of Desert Crater Lichen being toxic, poisonous or venomous. That is not proof that it is safe. Never eat, touch or handle a wild plant, mushroom or animal on the strength of an identification; ask someone qualified.

Easily confused with

• Diploschistes muscorum
• Xalocoa ocellata
• Diploschistes scruposus
• Diploschistes actinostomus
• Diplotomma alboatrum

Classification

Kingdom

Fungi

Phylum

Ascomycota

Class

Lecanoromycetes

Order

Ostropales

Family

Graphidaceae

Genus

Diploschistes

Species

Diploschistes diacapsis

More species