ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > PERTUSARIALES > Icmadophilaceae

Common name:            Candy Lichen

Synonym:                    -

Habitat:                         Montane and upland

Substrata:                     Damp peat and rotting wood

Growth form:                Terricolous and lignicolous

Thallus:                  Crustose

Apothecia:                    Lecanorine

BLS identity rating:        Graded 1/5 (identification straightforward unless sterile)

Thallus granular, light blue-grey, becoming pale green when wet or in shade; apothecia usually scattered in clusters, flesh- pink, up to about 4mm dia., sometimes short-stalked, discs, convex, often contorted and slightly pruinose, thalline margin becomes excluded as the apothecia develop.

The species grows on damp peat and rotting wood; common in Scotland, much rarer across the rest of Britain; in Austria where the specimen featured below was photographed, it's listed as a cool-temperate to boreal-montane, circumpolar species found on decaying wood and moribund bryophytes, usually in upland areas; common throughout the Alps.