Possibly exciting lichen update

so pale

I have just noticed that all watered samples of the thing-which-appears-to-be-Herpothallon-rubrocinctum have turned white to some degree, some after only a couple of hydration days! Appearances strongly suggest that this is not algal bleaching but in fact rapid sunscreen production by the fungus. Hopefully this means that I will soon see some growth!

(unfortunately, due to problems involving atranorin, the natural unidentifiability of drab microlichens, and my shortage of sterilized delicups a large portion of my new thalli are still in storage; furthermore several days ago one of the tiny green foliicolous dots bleached to apparent death seconds after a watering event, presumably because I accidentally snapped it in half)