Hypothallus
hypothallus (noun, pl. hypothalli) – a primal thallus persistent as a distinct layer below (or on the underside of) crustose and foliose lichens, thus extending between the thallus lobes or areoles and also growing along the thallus periphery; white to darkly coloured; sometimes thick, sometimes vestigial (reduced and poorly developed) and visible only as a blackened margin; if occurring only along the thallus periphery better referred to as a prothallus. In some genera like Anzia and Pannaria, the hypothallus refers to a distinctly differentiated, dense and more or less woolly or spongy, often black or dark brown, hyphal weft on the lower surface and along the lobe margins.
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