Buellia badia

Buellia badia (parasitic button lichen) is a dark chocolate-brown crustose areolate lichen of Europe, northern Africa, and North America that starts as a parasite growing on other lichens, such as Aspicilia phaea, gradually then becoming independent growing on rock (sometimes also on hardwood.[1]^:229 [2] Areoles may be contiguous or dispersed.[2] Lecideine apothecia are 0.3 to 0.9 mm in diameter with black discs, that are initially flat, then become strongly convex as they age.[2] Lichen spot tests are all negative.[1]^:229 There are no known secondary metabolites as of (2001).[2] It is similar in appearance and other ways to the chocolate brown Dimelaena californica, which also starts off as a parasite on other lichens, and has spores of similar shape, size, and internal construction.[2] D. californica has not been found on wood, is more preferential as to the lichens it starts growing on (usually Dimeleana radiate), and commonly has norstictic acid as a secondary metabolite.[2] Some think they should be included in a new, third genus.[2]

Buellia badia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Lecanoromycetes
Order:	Teloschistales
Family:	Caliciaceae
Genus:	Buellia
Species:	B. badia
Binomial name
buellia badia (Fr.) A. Massal.

References

1. Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-19500-2
2. Buellia badia, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region, Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bugartz, F., (eds.) 2001, Archived 2014-11-09 at the Wayback Machine