Cladonia digitata (images of British lichens)

Podetia grey-green, small, to c. 1cm, commonly arising from the centres of the basal squamules, forming neat, abruptly expanded cups on cylindrical stalks, densely sorediate, basal squamules large, spreading, rounded to shallowly lobed, densely farinose sorediate beneath; pycnidia and apothecia bright red, eventually borne on fingerlike projections from the rims of the cups, but young pycnidia brown and at this stage set in the in-turned cup margins, or pycnidia absent. Commonly only the basal squamules are present. On damp trunks and rotting wood, reportedly also on peat, recorded throughout Britain but not always a common species.

Refs: Smith et al. (2009), 326; Purvis et al. (1992), 198; Dobson (2005), 129 (photo, squamules only); Dobson (2011), 137 (photo, squamules only); Jahns (1983), 214-215 (photo); van Herk & Aptroot (2004), 138-39 (photo, squamules only); van Haluwyn et al. (2009), 216-17 (photo); Krog et al. (1994), 155 (photo); Moberg & Holmåson (1984), 138 (photo); Holien & Tønsberg (2008), 85 (photo); Wirth (1995), 1: 298, 325 (photo); Wirth et al. (2004), 87 (photo); Brodo et al. (2001), 252 (photo); Hinds & Hinds (2007), 179-80 (photo); Thomson (1967) 63, plate 1, fig 2 (photo but poor); Lichen Atlas of the British Isles 2: 383 (1996).

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Images of British Lichens