ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Cladoniaceae

Genus Cladonia, meaning 'branch or twig-like' - specifically relating to these richly branched species

Common name:             Reindeer moss (see Cladonia portentosa)

Synonyms:                     Cladina ciliata, Cladonia leucophaea

Habitat:                           Heathland, upland moors, dunes

Substrata:                       Acid soil, sometimes deadwood

Growth forms:               Terricolous, occasionally lignicolous                      

Basal thallus:                  Crustose, disappearing

Secondary thallus:         Podetia, richly branched

Apothecia:                     -  

BLS identity rating:        Graded 2/5 (should be able to separate to variety)

Basically, as the previously described species except that this form lacks usnic acid, which gives it a brown to grey-white rather than greenish-grey colouration.

In the lowlands, the usnic acid containing form Cladonia ciliata, var.tenuis is the most frequently recorded but, for some reason, the situation seems to be reversed in the New Forest with this form, var.ciliata, apparently being the more common of the two. They often grow together and almost certainly grade into each other such that some authors simply treat them as a single species. I've shown them separately here as the BLS currently record them as different species.