Quote:
Originally Posted by Monkey Orchid  Hi, folks.
I'm a complete lichen novice, would appreciate ID help with the specimen pictured below. I'm guessing Cladonia fimbriata?
All help welcomed. |
Cladonia species often grow together, and there is even at least one one, fortunately not common, that grows within the thalli of other
Cladonias.
So we actually have mixtures of species here.
Left: yes, this is good
Cladonia fimbriata (yes, abruptly golf-tee shaped and smoothly sorediate)
Centre: the cups are
C. fimbriata but we also see the spikes of
C. coniocraea.
Right: two of the 'pixie-cup' lichens togther here. On the left-hand side is more
C. fimbriata, but the larger cups on the right are more tapered, more granular, have squamules on the stalks and are beginning to proliferate from the margins. They are one of the
Cladonia chlorophaea complex, but not true
C. chlorophaea itself I feel. I absolutely will not ID any of this group without chemical testing, but it looks
likely to be
C. merochlorophaea. The same two species grow together on an old peat-bed outside my office window.
Alan