Agonimia vouauxii (B. de Lesd.) M. Brand & Diederich

A very small pyrenocarpous lichen with an inconspicuous grey-green thallus, growing on older stems of mosses or, as a part of soil microbial crusts, on exposed soil. Interesting is its ecology that differs between natural and anthropogenic habitats. Under natural conditions, the species occurs on rocky steppes and other sunny non-forest habitats, where it grows on humus or thalli of basiphilous mosses such as Abietinella abietina. On the other hand, in anthropogenic habitats, it tends to occur in microbial crust forming communities on wetter soil substrates, such as sand pits and settling pits. In such places, it can be found in the company of ephemeral lichens, such as Sarcosagium campestre or Verrucaria bryoctona. There is only one historical record of A. vouauxii in the Czech Republic, from Brno, where it was collected by A. Vězda in the vicinity of Mokrá hora Hill in the beginning of the second half of the 20th century (Vězda 1961). Only after 2000 more data on its occurrences were collected, mainly from anthropogenic substrates in southern and central Bohemia. Most of the records come from lower elevations up to about 700 m above sea level, but there is also a record from the Velká Kotlina glacial cirque in the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains from above 1200 m. Recent records from natural habitats come, for example, from the central part of the Vltava region and from the Křivoklát region. In Europe, this species is rarely reported and probably largely overlooked.

Literature: Vězda A. (1961): Doplňky k rozšíření lišejníků na Moravě (Addenda ad lichenographiam Moraviae, III). – Sborník Klubu Přírodovědeckého v Brně 33: 61–69.

Ascomycota → Eurotiomycetes → Verrucariales → Verrucariaceae → Agonimia