ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Cladoniaceae

Genus Cladonia, meaning 'branch or twig-like'

Common name:            Crowned Pixie-cup Lichen

Synonym:                    -

Habitat:                          Montane

Substrata:                      Rotting conifer stumps

Growth forms:              Lignicolous               

Basal thallus:                  Squamulose,

Secondary thallus:        Podetia, broad cups

Apothecia:                    Lecideine, pale brown fruits

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

Basal squamules usually rather small and inconspicuous;

Podetia with narrow stalks up to 2cm tall abruptly expanding to broad cups; usually regular in form with even, finely denticulate rims, which rarely proliferate; surface, including within the scyphi, entirely farinose-sorediate; colour pale yellow-green, appearing somewhat translucent when wet.    

Apothecia rather rare, pale yellow-brown to pale flesh-coloured, on rim of scyphi; pycnidia dark brown.

A boreal species only likely to be found in Britain in native Scottish pinewoods in the eastern Highlands, mainly in the Cairngorms region. In Austria where this specimen was photographed on a conifer stump, it is described as "a circumpolar, mainly boreal-montane to subarctic lichen found on rotting wood and soil rich in humus in open montane to subalpine woodlands, sometimes reaching the alpine belt; widespread throughout the Alps".