page_title: Cephalodium
hierarchical_section_title: Cephalodium
caption_attribution_description: Peltigera leucophlebia (Nyl.) Gyeln., 1810 (photograph of a herbarium specimen taken through a dissecting microscope (x30) showing a cephalodium on the upper surface of a lobe) Growing in moss around boggy depression near Iron Bridge at Carp Creek, off Hogsback Road, 0.4 mile E of Junction W Burt Lake Road, Cheboygan County, Michigan, USA; collected and identified by Richard E. Riefner (No. 81-351, 29 Jun 1981); specimen is now in the Lichen Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden.
context_page_description: Cephalodia are small gall-like structures found in some species of lichens that contain cyanobacterial symbionts. Cephalodia can occur within the tissues of the lichen, or on its upper or lower surface. Lichens that have both green algal and cyanobacterial symbionts restrict the cyanobacteria to cephalodia. Lichens that have only cyanobacterial symbionts do not have cephalodia: instead the cyanobacteria are widely distributed throughout the lichen. Lichens with cephalodia can fix nitrogen, and can be an important contributor of nitrogen to the ecosystem.
context_section_description: Cephalodia (singular cephalodium) are small gall-like structures found in some species of lichens that contain cyanobacterial symbionts. Cephalodia can occur within the tissues of the lichen, or on its upper or lower surface. Lichens that have both green algal and cyanobacterial symbionts restrict the cyanobacteria to cephalodia. Lichens that have only cyanobacterial symbionts do not have cephalodia: instead the cyanobacteria are widely distributed throughout the lichen. Lichens with cephalodia can fix nitrogen, and can be an important contributor of nitrogen to the ecosystem.
caption: Cephalodia on the upper surface of Peltigera leucophlebia, photographed through a dissecting microscope (x30).
exif: {}