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

Thallus: crustose, granular to verrucose-areolate, sometimes dispersed or reduced to sparse granules near apothecia, prothallus: whitish gray, +fibrous areoles: thin, opaque, ecorticate surface: grayish white to greenish gray, smooth, glossy, epruinose, with an indistinct margin, esorediate Apothecia: sessile to constricted at the base, 0.3-0.7 mm in diam., lecanorine disc: orange brown or dark reddish brown, seldomly blackish brown, plane or convex; epruinose margin: concolorous with thallus or slightly darker, thin, becoming excluded, prominent, smooth, entire, without a parathecial ring amphithecium: present, lacking crystals: algal cells: sparse, ecorticate parathecium: hyaline, lacking crystals epihymenium: brown to olive-brown, with pigment and crystals dissolving in K, with fine crystals dissolving in K hymenium: hyaline, clear; paraphyses: slightly thickened apically, up to 3 µm thick apically, brown pigmented; subhymenium: hyaline, 15-20 µm thick; hypothecium: hyaline, without oil droplets asci: clavate, 8-spored ascospores: hyaline, simple, globose, (4.5-)5-6(-7) x (4.5-)5-6(-7) µm; wall less than 1 µm thick Pycnidia: not observed Spot tests: K+ pale yellow, C-, KC-, P+ orange to red Secondary metabolites: confumarprotocetraric acid (trace or absent), fumarprotocetraric acid (major or absent), lobaric acid (major) and unknowns (minor). Substrate and ecology: on bark of conifers and on wood in montane areas World distribution: probably circumboreal, known from Europe and North America Sonoran distribution: alpine areas of central Arizona. Notes: Lecanora boligera is characterized by its globose ascospores, its lecanorine apothecial margin, its slightly thickened paraphyses and the presence of fumarprotocetraric and lobaric acids. Chemically identical is L. fuscescens, but this species differs in having broadly ellipsoid ascospores, capitate paraphyses and a often biatorine appearance of the apothecia. Another similar species is L. cadubriae, which is readily distinguished by the presence of the norstictic acid chemosyndrome and narrowly ellipsoid ascopsores.