Script Lichen

Script lichen is the common name of Graphis scripta, a crustose lichen in the family Graphidaceae, so named because its elongated, dark fruiting bodies scrawled across a smooth whitish-green to grey-green surface resemble handwriting. The fruiting bodies typically measure five to twenty five millimeters long. First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, the species is distributed across multiple continents, though its considerable variation in form suggests the name may cover more than one closely related species.