ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Cladoniaceae

Common name:             Mealy Pixie-cup

Synonyms:                     -

Habitat:                           Heathland

Substrata:                       Acid humous, peat, decaying wood, bark

Growth forms:               Lignicolous, corticolous                              

Basal thallus:                  Squamulose

Secondary thallus:         Podetia, 'goblet-shaped' cups

Apothecia:                     Lecideine, rare, brown fruits

BLS identity rating:        Graded 4/5 (see note)

Basal squamules small, erect, margins entire or only slightly crenulate; greyish-green upperside with white under surface.

Podetia greyish-green to almost entirely green, sometimes brownish in part, but not blackening towards the base as Cladonia merochlorophaea; any exposed medulla usually tinged pinkish-brown; somewhat variable in form, often short and stout to around 25mm tall in exposed open areas, or occasionally up to 40mm or so in more shaded situations (presumably when fighting for light), such as when growing around the base of trees as can be seen below; stalks gradually flaring into 'goblet- shaped' cups, which are usually around 3-6mm dia; scyphi mostly regular, but sometimes proliferating from the margin; surface with smaller, finer farinose rather than granulose soredia, becoming a little more granular with age and sometimes with small scales especially towards the base, but noticeably finer than in Cladonia chlorophaea.

Apothecia in this form are rare but, where present, brown at the cup margins; pycnidia more frequent.

Cladonia cryptochlorophaea is part of the wider Cladonia chlorophaea-grayi morpho-complex but, by having pinkish-brown rather than white medulla, is separable into the Cladonia grayi aggregate.

It is considered to be the most frequent of the brown-fruited 'pixie-cup' species, and the most likely form to be found growing on heathland, occurring on acid humous, peat, and rotting wood; or even on bark at the base of trees in more wooded areas; far more rarely on bare soils.

Whilst identification in the broad sense should be reasonably straightforward, none of the individually described aggregate forms can be reliably identified without TLC (thin-layer chromatology).

Personally, I'm content with trying to separate them into either the Cladonia chlorophaea or Cladonia grayi aggregates and, if possible, based on visual appearance, habitat and substrata, splitting the latter down into the most likely of the two common forms, being either Cladonia cryptochlorophaea as described here or Cladonia merochlorophaea as discussed on the next page. The remaining two forms that I haven't mentioned, as they are very rarely recorded, are Cladonia asahinae and Cladonia novochlorophaea.