Varicellaria (Pertusaria) lactea Milky-white Variolaria

This a conspicuous crustose lichen which forms large white patches on well-lit siliceous rocks. When growing well, the thallus is thick and strongly textured, being rimose, areolate and slightly verrucose, with globose soralia covering much of the thallus. Rarely fruits. C+ red, K-, KC+ red, Pd-.

Within the recording area it occurs both in coastal areas and well inland, on sandstone outcrops, walls and boulders that have acid chemistry.

Listed under Pertusaria lactea by Alan Orange in Flora of Glamorgan (Wade et al, 1994).