Cladonia ciliata (images of British lichens)

One of the 'reindeer lichens' (subgenus Cladina), variable in habit and colour (whitish grey or tinged yellow-green in var. tenuis, but more strongly ash- or bluish-grey in the less frequent var. ciliata), resembling the more common C. portentosa but more delicate, with the majority of branches oriented in a single direction, branching predominantly dichotomous at the apices (but by no means uniformly so), holes in the axes of the main branches inconspicuous or lacking, intense orange-red reaction with Pd (para-phenylenediamine). Widespread and locally common at least in the north and west, in pinewoods, on heaths and moors, and on base-boor dunes.

Refs: Smith et al. (2009), 318; Purvis et al. (1992), 196; Ahti (1961), 57, plates 16,17 (photos, as C. tenuis); Dobson (2005), 135-6 (photo); Dobson (2011), 143-4 (photo); Britton (2008) 24 (photos, vars. ciliata & tenuis); Jahns (1983), 212-213 (photo, var. ciliata); Wirth (1995), 1: 296, 297 (photo); Wirth et al. (2004), 72 (photo, ? var. ciliata); van Herk & Aptroot (2004), 126-127 (photo, as Cladina ciliata); Thomson (1967) 146, plate 24 (photo, as C. tenuis); Lichen Atlas of the British Isles 2: 372, 373 (1996).

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Images of British Lichens