General:
Common Name: The Bone Lichens. Stresses the hollow lobes of the species and the pale, often whitish, upper cortex.
Small to medium stratified foliose lichens, corticate above and below, sorediate or rarely isidiate or not, lobes rather loosely appressed to semi-erect or pendulous, hollow, occasionally perforate, 0.5–5 mm wide. Upper surface usually pale greyish, occasionally brownish. Lower surface blackish, shiny, wrinkled, lacking rhizines. Medulla white. Photobiont green.
Apothecia located over upper surface, often stalked/stipitate, disc usually concave, brown; spores simple, spherical to ellipsoid, colourless, 8 per ascus.
Notes: Hypogymnia is essentially a temperate genus of about 50 species worldwide. Twenty species occur in North America and 17 in B.C. The western Hypogymniae display a highly varied chemistry and spot tests are helpful in distinguishing between species. Note that what is usually referred to as a PD- medullary reaction in Hypogymnia may sometimes actually be discerned as PD+ pale yellow. In this case, however, the coloration is usually restricted to the upper portion of the medulla, while the lower portion remains white. By contrast, a “true” PD+ pale yellow reaction (e.g., as for H. rugosa) registers across the entire medulla, from top to bottom. Applying as little reagent as possible will help avoid ambiguity. Brodoa oroarctica was formerly treated within Hypogymnia.

Species description:
Soredia absent AND
Upper surface dark brownish, usually bearing lobules and/or isidia; over soil and mossy rock; alpine, mostly northern

Reactions:
Cortex K+ yellow (check pale areas); medulla KC+ red.

Contents:
Atranorin, physodic and vittatolic acids (and paraphysodic acid).

Source:  Lichens of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration By:  Trevor Goward

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Parmelia subobscura Vain.