Teloschistaceae

The Teloschistaceae are a large family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, although its members occur predominantly in temperate regions. Most members are lichens that either live on rock or on bark, but about 40 species are lichenicolousmeaning they are non-lichenised fungi that live on other lichens. Many members of the Teloschistaceae are readily identifiable by their vibrant orange to yellow hue, a result of their frequent anthraquinone content. The presence of these anthraquinone pigments, which confer protection from ultraviolet light, enabled this group to expand from shaded forest habitats to harsher environmental conditions of sunny and arid ecosystems during the Late Cretaceous.

Teloschistaceae lichens typically have one of a few physical growth forms. Depending on the species, the thallus (the main body of the lichen) is either leaf-like (foliose), bushy or shrub-like (fruticose), or crust-like (crustose). These lichens typically partner with a photosynthetic companion (a ) from the green algal genus Trebouxia. Teloschistaceae members are also characterised by their (the fruiting bodies where sexual reproduction occurs), which generally have a well-defined . In the Teloschistaceae, the tip of the ascus, the structure that produces spores, characteristically turns blue when stained with iodine. The ascospores are released through a longitudinal slit in the ascus tip, a unique trait common to this family of lichens.