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Lecidea hypnorum Lib.
Thallus thin, grey, coating moss and plant debris; apothecia dark brown to black, flat with a persisting marginal zone (but lacking a thalline margin) to convex. In calcareous habitats in the north and west, local.
Refs: Smith et al. (2009), 511; Purvis et al. (1992), 329; Dobson (2005), 236 (photo); Holien & Tønsberg (2008), 173 (photo, as Mycobilimbia hypnorum); Puntillo (1996), plate 25 (photo, as M. hypnorum); Øvstedal & Lewis Smith (2001), 252 (as M. hypnorum); Thomson (1997), 350-52 (photo).
Lecidea is, obviously, part of the very large 'Lecidea group' of lichens – crustose species with dark or black apothecia that lack distinct 'thalline' margins, though they will usually have differentiated 'proper' margins the same colour as the disk. Microscopic examination of mature apothecia (and sadly they are often not mature) is usually necessary even to be sure of the genus, and field identification of all but a few distinctive species is risky. Dobson (2005), pp. 233-234, gives an invaluable analysis of the component genera.
Braemar, Aberdeenshire, April 2003
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