ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Cladoniaceae

Common name:            -           

Synonyms:                    -

Habitat:                          Woodland, Heathland (occasionally)

Substrata:                      Decaying timber (as text), more rarely on soil

Growth forms:              Lignicolous, (terricolous)                 

Basal thallus:                  Squamulose

Secondary thallus:        Podetia, without cups

Apothecia:                    Lecideine, small, dark brown

BLS identity rating:        Graded 2/5 (visual identification relatively easy with care)

Basal thallus dominant forming crowded, compact, spreading, mat-like swards; squamules numerous, small and elongate, typically no more than 3-5mm long and barely 1mm wide, strongly incised, often with coralloid-sorediate granules at the margins; variable greenish, greyish-green, brownish-green or even yellowish-green upper surface, discolouring in old age, with a whitish underside.

Podetia short, sometimes only 5mm or so tall, but can be up to 15mm or even 20mm, usually conspicuously elevated above the squamules, mostly irregular, often distorted and sometimes flattened, partly decorticate, occasionally branched, scattered or clustered, without cups; apothecia small, dark brown, at tips of podetia, often extended and mostly clustered; pycnidia dark brown, scattered on the upper surface.

Cladonia parasitica is primarily a deadwood species occurring on damp hard lignum, including stumps, fallen trunks or branches, especially of oak, less frequently on pine; widespread, but localised; can be frequent in old mature woodland; also found on some heathland especially in the transitional zone between open heath and adjacent wooded areas where deadwood may be present; also, albeit quite rarely, on consolidated soil of earth banks in hollow ways.

Could resemble Cladonia incrassata, except that species has yellowish squamules and, if present, small podetia with red apothecia.