Lichina pygmaea

Description

Lichina pygmaea is a species of lichen-forming fungus in the family Lichinaceae. This cyanolichen forms small, dark brown-black shrubby tufts up to about 1 cm tall, with flattened, with flattened, hand-like branching that becomes soft and jelly-like when wet. The species grows on rocky shores in the intertidal zone, especially on steep or vertical surfaces exposed to regular tidal washing, and is common on exposed Atlantic coastlines from western and north-western Europe to north-western Africa. In Britain and Ireland it typically occupies a distinct band between the black tar-lichen zone above and the barnacle–limpet zone below. First described in 1777 by John Lightfoot as a small seaweed, it was transferred to Lichina by Carl Adolph Agardh in 1817 and is now recognized as a lichen. The genus contains four species; molecular studies indicate that the wide gaps in its distribution resulted from long-distance dispersal across oceanic barriers rather than from continental breakup.