Lecanora salina H. Magn.

    Thallus composed of rounded granules, dispersed or sometimes aggregated, the larger lobes potentially lobe-shaped though without clear limits, dull whitish, pale grey, grey, yellow-greyish,  margin effuse, prothallus indistinct. Apothecia 0.2-0.8 mm diam., scattered or clustered, sessile, constricted below, disc flat to slightly convex, pale brown, brown-reddish, grey-yellowish, slightly pruinose when young, without pruine when mature, exciple persistent, wavy to crenulate. Ascospores simple, broadly ellipsoid, 8-11 x 5-7 µm. Photobiont: Trebouxia. C+/- pink, K-, KC-, Pd-. Rare, on large pebbles or siliceous rocks along stony beaches in the Hydropunctaria (Verrucaria) maura and Caloplaca marina zone. Easily confused with Lecanora albescens that usually grows on concrete and calcareous rocks and less frequently near the seashore and with Lecanora bandolensis, very similar but more thermophile and with apothecia markedly spotted with bandolensis green. See also Lecanora oyensis which is very similar though more thermophile, C+ pink  but K+/- yellow and with apothecia discs more or less blue-green spotted, and with a regular exciple. This species is subject to various interpretations according to authors. The specimen presented here thrived on siliceous rocks in the littoral zone subjected to seapray at high tide and should therefore be considered with the usual restrictions applying for controversial species.*