General: Common Name: The Tumbleweed Lichen. Reflects the tendency of the species, which grows unattached, to be blown about in the wind. Small to occasionally medium stratified foliose lichen, corticate above, corticate and partly noncorticate below, lacking soredia and isidia, lobes unattached to substrate, elongate, averaging to 2–5 (–20) mm wide, thin to somewhat thick. Upper surface dark brown, dull or shiny, smooth. Lower surface dark brown, except decorticate patches whitish, lacking rhizines. Medulla white. Photobiont green. Apothecia unknown in B.C. material. Growing unattached over soil and duff. Notes: Masonhalea, a monotypic genus, is restricted to arctic-alpine localities at northern latitudes. It was formerly treated within Cetraria.
Habitat: Infrequent and growing unattached over open soil or duff in northern inland alpine localities World Distribution: western N Am – eastern Eurasia, S to northern BC.
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