Pixie Cup species?

[jaybie]

I have always known these as Pixie Cup without looking beyond the general term but I thought I would try after taking this shot.



I have looked in the Gallery and Alan Silverside's images site and was surprised at the complexity and I have to admit to being a bit lost by the terminology used.

Just wondered if these could be identified from the image or not, any help gratefully received- pos C. fimbriata but no idea really.

JohnB

[poschiavanus]

jaybie,

I still have two Cladonia to work through from Clumber. Not the easiest group of lichens .

C. fimbriata certainly seems likely. I'd say the podetia are finely sorediate. Two doubts: there is a lot of cortex showing on several of the podetia (I assume they're past their best), and there looks as if there are one or two apothecia on secondary podetia beyond the plane of focus.

I'm rather rusty on my lichens, and I wasn't much good at them even when I could remember more. So all to be taken with a pinch of caution.

Posch

[jaybie]

Posch - thanks for the info, JohnB

[AlanS]

Hi folks, I have had limited internet access in recent times (now fixed) so have not been in the forum.

Anyhow, yes, Pixie-cup lichens can be very difficult and this one is the most difficult of the lot.

It is Cladonia chlorophaea, which is very variable and really an aggregate of species that need chemical tests and examination under UV light for moderately reliable identification.

C. chlorophaea is very similar to C. fimbriata, and can be just as finely powdery (sorediate), but the cups are less abruptly tapered. As Poschiavanus has pointed out, there are exposed cortical areas, which is typical of true C. chlorophaea, and as he has also pointed out, some cups at the back are proliferating from the margins, which members of the C. chlorophaea complex commonly do, and which C. fimbriata, in my own experience, doesn't.

So yes, good C. chlorophaea - perhaps our commonest species. A good photograph of it too.

Alan Silverside