Caloplaca is a lichen genus, composed of a number of distinct species. Members of the genus are commonly called firedot lichen,:235 jewel lichen.:235 gold lichens, "orange lichens", but they are not always orange, as in the case of C. albovariegata. The distribution of this lichen genus is worldwide, extending from Antarctica to the high Arctic. It includes a portion of northern North America and the Russian High Arctic. There are about thirty species of Caloplaca in the flora of the British Isles. An example species in this genus is Caloplaca saxicola, a lichen with worldwide distribution including the Antarctic continent, Europe and northern North America including the northern reaches of the Canadian boreal forests.

A new species of Caloplaca, C. obamae, the first species to be named in honor of Barack Obama, was discovered in 2007 on Santa Rosa Island in California and published in March 2009.

Gallery


Caloplaca chrysodeta


Caloplaca citrina


Caloplaca feracissima


Caloplaca flavorubescens


Caloplaca flavovirescens


Caloplaca luteoalba


Caloplaca saxicola


Caloplaca sideritis


Caloplaca thallincola


Caloplaca xanthostigmoidea


Spore from an acus in an apothecium of C. feracissima; photographed through a compound microscope, ×1000


source - Wikipedia