CA, Southern California, 20081008
Lower Big Tujunga Canyon, saxicolous lichens. 

On mossy granite outcrops above Lower Big Tujunga Canyon Road, not far down from where it splits off of Angeles Forest Hwy.  North face, lots of ferns and moss. Around 3500'. 34.2948N 118.1740W

Pycnidia, at 30x. K+ reaction, at 30x. Underside, at 10x. Lobe tips, at 10x. (blurry)Beautiful one next to moss. A few on granite. One next to moss. One on moss in crack. 

Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia [] [voucher] 

 THAL broad rounded lobes, fairly appressed (but still possible to remove with care), sparse immersed pycnidia, lower surface brown
 MED white, K+ yellow to reddish-orange (some yellow remaining at edges)
 APO abundant

K+ reaction, at 10x. Isidia, at 30x, side view. Isidia, at 30x, top view. Underside, at 10x. Isidia, at 10x. (blurry)Several beautiful thalli forming patchwork on granite. Beautiful one by moss. Several confluent thalli on granite. 

Xanthoparmelia mexicana [] [voucher] 

 THAL broad rounded lobes, tightly appressed (nearly impossible to remove with knife), lower surface brown, abundant subglobose to coralloid isidia
 MED white, K+ yellow to pure blood red within seconds
 APO none

Underside, at 30x.  (Sort of shows lack of cortex.)Tips, at 30x. Thallus, at 10x. Few brown ones on granite. 

Physconia perisidiosa [] [voucher] 

 THAL brown, lobe margins curled up revealing copious granular soredia, soralia labriform, pruinose at tips, lower surface white and lacking cortex to brown streaked in older parts, rhizines black and squarrose

Less tiny bit, at 30x. Tiny bit, at 30x. Rather pruinose ones. Few brown ones on granite. 

Candelaria pacifica [] 

 THAL nearly leprose, yellow, minute lobes with soredia above and below
 APO none
No one tells me explicitly how to tell Candelaria pacifica from Candelariella efflorescens.

Asci and spores, in water, at 1000x. Apo section, in water, at 100x. Nice apothecium, at 30x. Several apothecia, at 10x. Few brown ones on granite. 

Sarcogyne privigna [] [voucher] 

 THAL endolithic
 APO forming umbilicate clusters, lecideine
rim black, carbonized, strongly crenulate, thick
disc deep red-black, smooth, undulate to concave
epi dk brown, K-
hymen clear, K/I+ deep blue
hypo lt brown grading into dk brown below, K-
para v thin, strongly conglutinate even in K, tips abruptly thickened from about 1um to 2um, with dark pigment cap
asci thick-walled, thickened tip with broad bump protruding down into inner chamber, walls K/I+
 SPORE hundreds per ascus, hyaline, oblong, simple, to at least 4x1um maybe longer, impossible to get them to leave the ascus (if you press on it it ejects the entire inner "bag" of spores and this sticks out above the paraphyses tips like a balloon)

Spores in asci, in water, at 1000x. Apo section, in water, at 100x. (lousy)A few apothecia, at 30x. Several apothecia, at 10x. Rather pruinose ones. Pruinose apothecia by moss. Apothecia on granite protruding from moss. 

Lecidea laboriosa [] 

 THAL endolithic
 APO forming ubilicate clusters
lecidene rim black, even with disc, smooth, thin, white rough underneath
disc black, distinctly white pruinose, flexuous to plane, to 2mm wide
epi green-brown, K-
hymen clear, K/I+ intense blue making it impossible to see asci
hypo light brown (dark in thick section)
para thin, hyal, occ. branched, strongly conglutinated, swollen tips in some sort of gelatinous substance making them indistinct
asci beats me, saw one or two without any real K/I+ blue tip, perhaps they really are Lecidea-type
 SPORE 8 per ascus, clear, simple, oblong, (6.8)7.8+/-0.71(9.4)x(3.2)3.9+/-0.52(5.0)um (Q=(1.6)1.9+/-0.24(2.5)) (N=19)

Carbonea is epruinose and carbonized epihymenium. 
Porpidia has much larger halonate spores. 
Lecidella has easily-separating paraphyses, and I+red ascus walls(!)
Schaereria has easily-separating paraphyses, C+ exciple(?)
Rimularia epihymenium not green, paraphyses without swollen tips
Adelolecia genus good, but only species in area is epilithic
Lecidea ... several work, including esp. L. hassei and L. laboriosa. 

Ugh.

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