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Nature's golf tees (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter JMikeB
- Start date
Silver
Registered Sane
JMikeB said:
This is one of the 'pixie-cup lichens', species of Cladonia.
It looks like your one has small red spots around the edge of the cup, which would make it the common and very variable Cladonia coccifera.
(Or actually Cladonia diversa if this is accepted as a separate species from true C. coccifera.)
Edit: Oh no it isn't! See my post below. This is Cladonia fimbriata.
If you search the forum you'll find a bunch of pictures of these pixie-cup lichens were posted back in the spring. With the wetter weather, looks like they are freshening up and becoming photogenic again!
Nice picture.
Alan
Last edited:
Silver
Registered Sane
JMikeB said:
Well, thanks ... but I would have been more helpful if I had got the thing right!
On my office monitor those dots look more brown than red, and now back at home I think they are brown.
I was thinking that C. coccifera is not usually so neat as that (though sometimes it can be).
With the long, slender stem to the cup and tiny brown dots (which are the areas where the sexual spores are released, equivalent to a mushroom's gills) - this is another of the pixie-cup lichens, Cladonia fimbriata.
Also common.
Apologies. Yes, these pixie-cup lichens are fascinating ... but tricky!
Alan
