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 rarer 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. 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); Britton (2008) 24 (photos, vars. ciliata & tenuis); Jahns (1983), 212-213 (photo, var. ciliata); Wirth (1995), 1: 296, 297 (photo); 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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