Nash, T.H., Ryan, B.D., Gries, C., Bungartz, F., (eds.) 2004. Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region. Vol 2.

Thallus: crustose, dispersed into elements, up to 2.5 cm in diam. upper surface: yellow or orange, covered with whitish pruina, with schizidia upper cortex: paraplectenchymatous, 25-60 µm thick including a up to 35 µm thick epinecral layer medulla: white, 40-160 µm; algal layer: indistinct, 25-150 µm thick, with scattered, algae cells dispersed through the whole medulla lower cortex: absent lower surface: gelatinized, with compressed hyhae Apothecia: common, sessile, up to 1.5 mm in diam. disc: flat, becoming convex or rarely concave in old ones margin: smooth, brighter than disc asci: clavate, 8-spored ascospores: hyaline, 1-septate, ellipsoid, 10-15 x 4-7 µm Pycnidia: unilocular or plurilocular; conidiophores branched or pseudoparenchymatous arranged; conidiogenous cells: terminally or intercalary arranged, acrogenous or pleurogenous, with "bayonet-like" projections conidia: hyaline, simple, oblong, 3-3.5 x 1-1.2 µm Secondary metabolites: anthraquinone pigments. Substrate and ecology: soil and eroding sediments in dry habitats World distribution: widely distributed in warm and dry areas of the Northern Hemisphere, also found in dry alpine valleys and in Norway Sonoran distribution: one of the most common Fulgensia species in Arizona, southern California and Baja California.