ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Cladoniaceae

Common name:             Many-forked Cladonia

Synonyms:                     -

Habitat:                           Heathland

Substrata:                       Mildly acid soil

Growth forms:               Terricolous              

Basal thallus:                  Squamulose, disappearing

Secondary thallus:         Podetia, erect, no cups

Apothecia:                     Lecideine, but usually infertile

BLS identity rating:        Graded 1/5 (identification should be straightforward)

Extremely variable; primary thallus squamules usually disappearing early.

Podetia slender and erect; typically 20-50mm although sometimes up to 80mm tall, often forming loose, irregular tufted mats; stalks hollow, dichotomously branched with compact, somewhat pointed apices, never cups.

Colour varies green to dark grey-green, particularly in shady locations, to olive-brownish in more open areas; often with a purplish tinge; surface corticate throughout; smooth although often pale marbled-areolate appearing as a mosaic of lighter coloured reticulation.

Usually absent but, if fertile, small, brown, globose apothecia can be found on the tips of the branches.

Cladonia furcata occurs primarily on mildly acid heathland, and on soil in some grassy locations, but also on mossy rocks in woodland where it may be found growing with Cladonia rangiformis, which is a rather similar, albeit more richly and wider branched species.

Whilst the type species ssp.furcata is described, there is a variant form, ssp.subrangiformis, presumably a cross-species of sorts, which is mainly found on open grazed calcareous grassland in the south-east; it has a tendency to lay almost prostrate and is distinguished by having more robust, usually brown podetia that have raised, wart-like, white spots near the base.