ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Cladoniaceae

Common name:            Pebbled Pixie-cup

Synonyms:                    -

Habitat:                          Heathland, but otherwise wide-ranging

Substrata:                      Moss-covered tree trunks, and mildly acidic soils

Growth forms:              Terricolous, corticolous, lignicolous            

Basal thallus:                  Squamulose

Secondary thallus:        Podetia

Apothecia:                    Lecideine, brown

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

Basal squamules generally rather small, rounded or elongate with few indentations, can be sparce or abundant, often becoming erect; upper surface pale grey-greenish, underside similar, but even paler, almost whitish; usually persistent.

Podetia variable, typically just 5-15mm tall, often gradually widening from the base with the stalk hardly present, other times, if taller, with more stalk showing; cups usually regular in form, very rarely proliferating from the rim; surface uneven with coarse corticate granules, which are particularly well-developed within the bowl of the scyphi, where they may be smooth and shiny; variably scattered with decorticate pale areas, soredia absent; greyish-green to brownish-green.

Apothecia and pycnidia brown, not necessarily common, but where present on scyphus rim, apothecia often shortly elevated.

Cladonia pyxidata has been frequently misidentified either with the very closely associated ecotypes Cladonia pocillum or Cladonia monomorpha, which are primarily distinguished by having larger basal squamules or, more likely, with Cladonia chlorophaea that can look superficially similar except for the podetia being covered with small granular soredia rather than coarse corticate granules both on the upper part as well as within the scyphi.

Primarily found on dry, mildly acidic to base-rich soils, but also on mossy tree bark and rocks.