''Verrucaria serpuloides'' is a species of
saxicolous (rock-dwelling),
crustose lichen
Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...
belonging to the family
Verrucariaceae. It is native to the
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica.
...
. It is one of only two permanently submerged species of lichen, the other being ''
Hydrothyria venosa'', and the only one found permanently submerged in a marine environment.
Collections of the species were first made in 1944 by
Elke Mackenzie.
The species has been discovered living up to below mean
high tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ...
. It creates jet-black patches on the base of submerged rocks. It uses
green algae
The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ...
as a symbiont.
[
]
See also
* List of ''Verrucaria'' species
References
External links
*
serpuloides
Lichen species
Lichens described in 1948
Lichens of Antarctica
Taxa named by Elke Mackenzie
{{Eurotiomycetes-stub