Piedmont Cobblestone

Acarospora piedmontensis is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling) crustose lichen in the family Acarosporaceae. Described in 2011 from a granite flatrock outcrop at Forty Acre Rock in Lancaster County, South Carolina, this lichen is characterized by small, brown, scale-like squamules that develop on distinct stalks and typically bear a single large, immersed apothecium (fruiting body) with a disc (the exposed spore-bearing surface) that turns reddish-brown when wet. The species appears to be restricted to the Piedmont...