Elegant sunburst lichen

[XANTHORIA ELEGANS]

Wanderers among the dusty gray and tan rocks of Sierra Nevada or Southern California understandably fail to notice that these colors derive almost entirely from lichens covering every surface. Amid this drab mosaic, however, is one fluorescent exception -- the brilliantly orange elegant sunburst lichen. Because it needs nitrogen to survive, this lichen typically thrives under bird perches or near mammal dens where it can absorb the nitrogen from animal feces and urine. There it grows so well that Inuit hunters in the Arctic use the lichen as a marker to find active marmot burrows. Scan the rocks of a cliff or outcrop and discover how elegant sunburst lichen flags otherwise hidden hawk nests or packrat dens.

NATURAL HISTORY

Measurements taken from gravestones reveal just how slowly this species grows -- each colony takes 100 years to reach the diameter of a fried egg yolk.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

A rich reddish-orange in color, the lichen forms flat circular rosettes made up of outwardly radiating fingerlike lobes.