{{Short description|Species of lichen-forming fungus}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2025}} {{Speciesbox | image = Rhizocarpon geographicum on quartz.jpg | status = G5 | status_system = TNC | status_ref = <ref name=NS>{{cite NatureServe |id=2.122931 |title=''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' |access-date=7 November 2025}}</ref> | taxon = Rhizocarpon geographicum | authority = (L.) DC. (1805) }}
'''''Rhizocarpon geographicum''''' (the '''map lichen''') is a species of lichen, which grows on rocks in mountainous areas of low air pollution. Each lichen is a flat patch bordered by a black line of fungal hyphae. These patches grow adjacent to each other, leading to the appearance of a map or a patchwork field.
When circular, or roughly circular, the diameter of this lichen species has been widely used to help determining the relative age of deposits, e.g. moraine systems, thus revealing evidence of glacial advances. The process is termed lichenometry.<ref>Beschel, R. E. 1950. Flechten als Altersmaßstab rezenter Moränen.Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie NF, 1:151-62. (Translated by W. Barr as Lichens as a measure of the age of recent moraines. Arctic and Alpine Research, 5, 303-309)</ref>
==Taxonomy== ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as ''Lichen geographicus'', which he characterised as forming yellow patches divided by black lines so that the rock surface resembled a map.<ref name="Linnaeus 1753"/> In 1805 Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, in a work co-authored with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, transferred the species to their new genus ''Rhizocarpon'', describing a very thin black crust on the rock that bears distinct yellow-green "scales" ({{lang|fr|écailles}}), corresponding to what are now regarded as the {{lichengloss|areoles}} of the thallus, together with flat, matte-black apothecia edged by a slight rim. They treated forms such as ''Lichen atrovirens'' and ''Verrucaria geographica'' as age variants of the same species, which they named ''Rhizocarpe géographique'' (''Rhizocarpon geographicum'').<ref name="Lamarck & De Candolle 1805"/>
It is the type species of ''Rhizocarpon'', a genus of crustose rock-dwelling lichens in the family Rhizocarpaceae, which also includes ''Catolechia'', ''Epilichen'' and ''Poeltinula''. Because no original material referable to ''Lichen geographicus'' survives in the Linnaean Herbarium, modern authors have stabilised the name using Dillenian material: an illustration in Johann Jacob Dillenius's ''Historia Muscorum'' that Linnaeus cited has been designated as the lectotype, and a corresponding specimen in the Oxford herbarium serves as an epitype that fixes the current application of the name.<ref name="Roca-Valiente et al. 2016"/> [[File:Map Lichen - Rhizocarpon geographicum (22183206183).jpg|thumb|right|In Zermatt, Switzerland]] Study of this epitype shows the {{lichengloss|character}} combination that now defines the species. The lichen forms a yellow-green crust with a black {{lichengloss|prothallus}}, and its medulla reacts blue-green with iodine. The apothecia have colourless asci and brown, {{lichengloss|muriform}} ascospores divided into eight cells and measuring about 32 × 12 μm. Microchemical tests and later thin-layer chromatography have shown that the type material contains rhizocarpic and psoromic acids, together with a minor amount of 2'-O-demethylpsoromic acid. These features are used to separate ''R. geographicum'' from other yellow members of the genus that may look similar in the field.<ref name="Roca-Valiente et al. 2016"/>
The species gives its name to the ''R. geographicum'' species complex, a complex of yellow-green ''Rhizocarpon'' species characterised by the presence of rhizocarpic acid, a medulla that reacts blue-violet with iodine, an {{lichengloss|epithecium}} lacking dark granules, and muriform ascospores. About 26 species are recognised in this group, and no fewer than 95 infraspecific names have been published under ''R. geographicum'' alone, reflecting long-recognised variation within the complex and the difficulty of defining species limits. Recent work combining type studies, broader morphological sampling and DNA sequence data has shown that the yellow species of ''Rhizocarpon'' are polyphyletic (not descendant from a single ancestor) and that several characters traditionally used in keys—such as certain K and Pd spot test reactions and the presence of collar-like {{lichengloss|areoles}} around the apothecia—are inconsistent or misleading. As a result, the ''R. geographicum'' complex and the traditional subdivision of the genus into yellow and non-yellow groups are being re-evaluated in the light of modern phylogenetic analyses.<ref name="Roca-Valiente et al. 2016"/>
==Description== The thallus of ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' can form extensive patches up to about 15 cm across. It is usually sharply delimited by a well-developed black prothallus, within which the surface is broken into small angular areoles. These areoles are typically 0.2–1.8 mm across (occasionally to 2.5 mm), and range in colour from pale to vivid yellow-green; in some montane populations they may show a slight orange tint. The areoles are usually tightly packed, though they can be more sparsely scattered on the black ground layer, and their surface is flat to gently convex, more rarely slightly concave, and generally smooth. The internal white medulla gives a blue staining reaction with iodine, indicating the presence of amyloid polysaccharides.<ref name="Fryday et al. 2024"/>
The sexual structures are small black apothecia, usually less than 1.5 mm in diameter, which sit on the areoles and are round to somewhat angular. Their {{lichengloss|discs}} are flat to slightly convex, lack any surface {{lichengloss|pruina}}, and are surrounded by a thick to only weakly developed margin. In section, the outer rim of the {{lichengloss|exciple}} is dark brown while the inner part is paler and typically turns purple-red with potassium hydroxide solution; the uppermost tissue ({{lichengloss|epithecium}}) is red-brown, brown or olive-green. The ascospores are dark brown, {{lichengloss|muriform}}, and relatively large (about 20–50 × 10–20 μm), with numerous internal cells visible in optical section. The medulla usually gives a Pd+ (yellow) reaction, indicating the presence of rhizocarpic acid together with either psoromic or barbatic acids. Some chemotypes instead lack these reactions or contain other minor substances such as bourgeanic or low amounts of gyrophoric acid.<ref name="Fryday et al. 2024"/>
==Distribution== [[File:Purons sui ëures de Resciesa te Gherdëina Südtirol.jpg|thumb|right|''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' is a prominent member of the saxicolous lichen community growing on these rocks in the Puez-Geisler Nature Park in South Tyrol, Italy.]] This lichen species is broadly distributed and may be found in most cold areas with exposed rock surfaces. The North American range includes the Sierra Nevada<ref>Tracy Irwin Storer, Robert Leslie Usinger and David Lukas. 2004. ''Sierra Nevada Natural History'', 2nd ed, University of California Press, {{ISBN|0-520-24096-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-520-24096-4}}, 439 pages</ref> and northern boreal forests of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Fennoscandia and Siberia.<ref>C. Michael Hogan. (2008) [http://globaltwitcher.auderis.se/artspec_information.asp?thingid=44751 ''Black Spruce: Picea mariana'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005174426/http://globaltwitcher.auderis.se/artspec_information.asp?thingid=44751 |date=2011-10-05 }}</ref> In the tropics it only occurs at high altitudes such as the Andes of Peru and Colombia. Further south the map lichen is found broadly across Patagonia,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garibotti|first1=Irene A. |last2=Pissolito|first2=Clara I. |last3=Villalba|first3=Ricardo |title=Vegetation Development on Deglaciated Rock Outcrops from Glaciar Frías, Argentina |journal=Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |volume=43 |issue=1 |date=February 2011 |pages=35–45 |doi=10.1657/1938-4246-43.1.35 |jstor=41240397 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1657/1938-4246-43.1.35|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Leopoldo G. |last1=Sancho |first2=David |last2=Palacios |first3=T. G. Allan |last3=Green |first4=Mercedes |last4=Vivas |first5=Ana |last5=Pintado |title=Extreme high lichen growth rates detected in recently deglaciated areas in Tierra del Fuego |journal=Polar Biology |volume=34 |year=2011 |issue=6 |pages=813––822 |doi=10.1007/s00300-010-0935-4 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227092385}}</ref> in the Falkland Islands, the sub Antarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.<ref>[http://data.gbif.org/species/14367896 Global Biodiversity Information Facility] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191551/http://data.gbif.org/species/14367896 |date=2016-03-03 }}</ref>
In Britain it can be found commonly growing on hard siliceous rocks, especially in upland regions. Its range covers virtually all of Scotland, much of North West England, and other upland areas in much of the rest of England, Wales and Ireland too.<ref>Frank Dobson. 1979. ''Lichens, An Illustrated Guide'' The Richmond Publishing Co Ltd, {{ISBN|0-85546-203-5}}, page 244</ref>
In Spain it is found primarily in siliceous mountain ranges, although occasionally it can be found near sea level, even in southern Spain, where it is known from Cabo de Gata.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Burgaz|first=A. R.|date=2014|title=Líquenes de Andalucía (S de España): catálogo bibliográfico y nuevos datos del NW del área|url=https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/BOCM|journal=Botanica Complutensis|volume=38|pages=53–88|doi=10.5209/rev_BOCM.2014.v38.45775|doi-access=free}}</ref>
==Ecology== ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' is a known host to the lichenicolous fungus species ''Muellerella pygmaea''.<ref Name="Svane & Alstrup 2004">{{cite journal |last1=Svane |first1=Svanhildur Jónsdóttir |last2=Alstrup |first2=Vagn |year=2004 |title=Some lichenicolous fungi from Iceland |url=https://utgafa.ni.is/Acta-Botanica-Islandica/Acta-Botanica-Islandica-14/Acta-Botanica-Islandica-14-2.pdf |journal=Acta Botanica Islandica |volume=14 |pages=53–58}}</ref>
==Life span== One specimen of ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' on East Baffin Island has an estimated age of 9500 years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosenwinkel |first=Swenja |last2=Korup |first2=Oliver |last3=Landgraf |first3=Angela |last4=Dzhumabaeva |first4=Atyrgul |date=2015 |title=Limits to lichenometry |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379115301529 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=129 |pages=229–238 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.031|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=G. H. |last2=Andrews |first2=J. T. |date=April 1972 |title=Quaternary History of Northern Cumberland Peninsula, East Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada Part VI: Preliminary Lichen Growth Curve for Rhizocarpon geographicum |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/83/4/1133/7545/Quaternary-History-of-Northern-Cumberland |journal=GSA Bulletin |volume=83 |issue=4 |pages=1133–1138 |doi=10.1130/0016-7606(1972)83[1133:QHONCP]2.0.CO;2|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Thalli of ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' in the central Brooks Range of northern Alaska have been given a maximum possible age of 10,000–11,500 years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haworth |first=Leah A. |last2=Calkin |first2=Parker E. |last3=Ellis |first3=James M. |date=1986 |title=Direct Measurement of Lichen Growth in the Central Brooks Range, Alaska, U.S.A., and Its Application to Lichenometric Dating, Arctic and Alpine Research |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00040851.1986.12004090 |journal=Arctic and Alpine Research |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=289–296 |doi=10.2307/1550886|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Benedict |first=James B. |date=January 2009 |title=A Review of Lichenometric Dating and Its Applications to Archaeology |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/abs/review-of-lichenometric-dating-and-its-applications-to-archaeology/21C29EAAF0361CCE2B98793DC3CB9F5F |journal=American Antiquity |volume=74 |issue=1 |pages=143–172 |doi=10.1017/S0002731600047545|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Outer space== In an experiment, this lichen species was placed in a capsule and launched into space. The capsule was opened, exposing the lichen to space conditions for 10 days before being brought back down to Earth, where it showed minimal changes or damage.<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.03.010 | issn = 0019-1035| volume = 208| issue = 2| last = de la Torre| first = Rosa |author2=Leopoldo G. Sancho |author3=Gerda Horneck |author4=Asunción de los Ríos |author5=Jacek Wierzchos |author6=Karen Olsson-Francis |author7=Charles S. Cockell |author8=Petra Rettberg |author9=Thomas Berger |author10=Jean-Pierre P. de Vera | title = Survival of lichens and bacteria exposed to outer space conditions – Results of the Lithopanspermia experiments| journal = Icarus| pages = 735–748 | date = August 2010| bibcode = 2010Icar..208..735D| url = http://oa.upm.es/7093/}}</ref> {{further|BIOPAN|EXPOSE}}
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==See also== * Extremophile * List of lichens named by Carl Linnaeus
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=
<ref name="Fryday et al. 2024">{{cite book |last1=Fryday |first1=A. |last2=Möller |first2=E.J. |last3=Timdal |first3=E. |last4=Yahr |first4=R. |last5=Cannon |first5=P. |last6=Coppins |first6=B. |last7=Sanderson |first7=N. |last8=Simkin |first8=J. |year=2024 |title=Rhizocarpales, including ''Catolechia'', ''Epilichen'', ''Haugania'', ''Poeltinula'' and ''Rhizocarpon'' (Rhizocarpaceae), and ''Sporastatia'' and ''Toensbergia'' (Sporastatiaceae) |series=Revisions of British and Irish Lichens |volume=41 |page=10 |url=https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/Rhizocarpales.pdf}}</ref>
<ref name="Lamarck & De Candolle 1805">{{cite book |last1=de Lamarck |first=Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine |last2=De Candolle |first2=Augustin Pyramus |year=1805 |title=Flore française |edition=3 |volume=2 |page=365 |location=Paris |publisher=H. Agasse |language=fr |url=https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/viewer/9877/?offset=#page=377&viewer=picture&o=bookmark&n=0&q=}}</ref>
<ref name="Linnaeus 1753">{{cite book |first=Carl |last=Linnaeus |year=1753 |title=Species Plantarum |volume=2 |publisher=Impensis Laurentii Salvii |location=Stockholm |language=la |page=1140 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/359161}}</ref>
<ref name="Roca-Valiente et al. 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Roca-Valiente |first1=Beatriz |last2=Hawksworth |first2=David L. |last3=Pérez-Ortega |first3=Sergio |last4=Sancho |first4=Leopoldo G. |last5=Crespo |first5=Ana |title=Type studies in the ''Rhizocarpon geographicum'' group (Rhizocarpaceae, lichenized Ascomycota) |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=48 |issue=2 |year=2016 |doi=10.1017/S002428291500050X |pages=97–110}}</ref>
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{{Taxonbar|from=Q1365267}}
Category:Rhizocarpaceae Category:Lichen species Category:Lichens described in 1753 Category:Lichens of Europe Category:Lichens of North America Category:Lichens of South America Category:Lichens of Iceland Category:Fungal taxa named by Carl Linnaeus