Local Name
K’ldis khavsi (Gare Kakh.) [1]

Description
Thallus rosette-like, irregular rosette-like, sometimes of irregular shape, up to 10 cm diam., +/- firmly attached to the substrate. Lobes short and narrow, 1-5 mm long, 0.5-1.5 mm wide. Upper surface brownish, dark brown or almost black, smooth, shiny (especially at younger lobe tips), sometimes with opaque areas, without soralia or isidia but usually with picnidia; lower surface opaque, black, but brown shiny towards lobe tips, with black rhizines reaching the margins. Apothecia up to 6 mm diam., with brownish-black opaque or slightly shiny disk and thick dentate margin. Spore ellipsoid, 7.5-9.5 X 4.5-6 µ.

Habitat
On siliceous rocks and stones.

Distribution
Svaneti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Meskheti [3].

Uses
Gare Kakheti – “Stone moss (“kvis khavsi”) is brownish, occurs on stones but not on riverbanks; it should be collected covered with dew as it crashes when dry. Thread was coloured in cast-iron pots, the plant was poured into a pot, boiled and thread rolls were then put into the boiling mixture. The moss gave rusty-brown colour and it did not fade. Then the thread rolls were washed in ash water (“natsartvali”): ash was sieved, covered with water and boiled, then left to let the ash to settle down and the water above the precipitate was used to wash the coloured thread rolls” [1]. Adjara – “In childhood we collected colourful things that occur on big stones, poured them onto a wet stone, then steered with a long stone until they dissolve and used to paint on paper. We did not have colour pencils. Thus we made rust-colour, brown, white, dry-grass-colour paints. Reddish ones more often occurred on the upper sunlit side, green ones more often grew on shaded side” [2].

References
1. Mgelashvili, T. 2015. Vill. Gombori, Sagarejo. 2. Kviakhidze, E. 2016. Vill. Riketi, Khulo (eco-migrant in vill, Ghrmaghele, Lanchkhuti). 3. Nakhutsrishvili, I.G., et al. 1986. Flora of Spore-producing Plants of Georgia (Summary). Metsniereba, Tbilisi.