Lepraria glaucosorediata

The species forms a thick, powdery (leprose) crust with a well-delimited but non-lobed edge, colored green-gray to bluish-gray; patches can appear whitish where a compact medulla-like layer of soredia is exposed (a true medulla is absent). The underlying hypothallus is thin and not sharply set off, composed of white to brownish hyphae. Soredia—the tiny, powdery reproductive granules containing algal cells—are floury (farinose), rounded, and to about 30 micrometres (μm) across; they occur in two forms: (1) granules built around a single, relatively large algal cell (≈10–17 μm) and (2) granules with several smaller algal cells (≈5 μm). Aggregates (consoredia) are uncommon and can reach ~100 μm. The soredial wall is a key feature: it is complete and unusually thick (to ~5 μm, 1–4 cell layers) and may be hyaline or partly to entirely bluish-gray pigmented; projecting hyphae are absent. The photobiont is chlorococcoid (green, spherical cells to ~10–17 μm).^[2]

Spot test reactions are distinctive: the thallus is C+ (carmine red), P+ (orange), and mostly K+ (yellow); the bluish pigment in the soredial wall reacts C+ (orange to orange-brown) and K+ (olivaceous brown). Thin-layer chromatography shows alectorialic, lecanoric, and protocetraric acids; repeated checks across the thallus gave the same chemistry. In combination, the thick, blue-tinged soredial walls (without projecting hyphae), the two soredial types, and this chemistry separate the species from lookalikes. For example, L. incana can look similar but has divaricatic acid with zeorin and lacks the two soredial types; L. achariana and L. eburnea share parts of the chemistry but lack the bluish soredial pigment and have thinner or incomplete soredial walls (L. eburnea).^[2]

The type material grew on rock and on mosses over rock in a humid, shaded microhabitat within high-elevation Andean puna grassland. As of its original publication, the species was known only from the type locality in Bolivia.^[2]