Hypotrachyna virginica

This foliose lichen kinda looks like inflated puzzle pieces, with it’s thick, leathery lobes with dichotomous branches. The upper surface is a green-tinged, pale gray, and the margins and lower surface are black. Soredia are produced from cracked pustules on the upper surface, usually more towards the center of the thallus. You can distinguish  H. virginica from look-alike H. laevigata by the larger, more coarse soredia produced by the formers, and the fairer, smaller soredia produced by the latter. H virginica grows on tree bark in spruce-fir forests in the southern Appalachian mountains--a critically imperiled ecosystem being decimated by invasive Balsam woolly adelgids (Adelges piceae). It used to be thought that this species was found disjointedly in the neotropics, as well as the SE U.S., but recent studies showed that specimens found in the neotropics were actually a separate species. This means that the few populations left of this lichen are in danger--projections predict a loss of over 80% of the area of occupancy and extent of occurrence. And yeah, that’s bad. And while this lichen is lucky enough to be well studied and monitored in its decline, that doesn’t necessarily mean there is much scientists can do about it. They will try, though! We always try. But change is needed from without, to protect the most vulnerable species within. 

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