ASCOMYCOTA | LECANOROMYCETES > LECANORALES > Stereocaulaceae

Genus Lepraria, meaning 'scurfy' - from the structure of the thallus

Common name:            Fluffy Dust Lichen

Synonym:                      Lepraria lobificans

Habitat:                         Varied, but Woodland for this entry

Substrata:                     Bark, rock, walls, soil

Growth form:                Corticolous, saxicolous, terricolous

Thallus:                  Leprose

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

Thallus of soft, spongy, thickish pale green, greenish-grey or blue-greenish granules, more or less delimited, but with indistinct marginal lobes, the granules often eroding and becoming powdery with age; some sections may look paler, notably towards the margin due to the presence of white fluffy medulla; fertile specimens have never been found.

Widespread and common, occurring on wide range of substrata including trees and rocks, also on soil, walls and other manmade structures, usually vertical or overhanging, but always in shaded and sheltered habitats, especially those protected from direct rainfall. In woodland it is more likely to be found lower down on moist, not wet, trunks of less acidic-barked trees, such as Alder, Beech, Ash, Sycamore.

Lepraria finkii is probably the most common leprose lichen in the west, whereas in eastern Britain it's the rather similar Lepraria incana, which does not have the white base. Botryolepraria lesdainii is another bright green leprose species that could be easily confused, except that it has much finer granules and occurs on damp shaded limestone and mortar, often overgrowing mosses, rather than on tree trunks.