Mealy Forked Lichen

Cladonia scabriuscula

Cladonia (cup lichen) is a genus of moss-like lichens in the family Cladoniaceae. They are the primary food source for reindeer/caribou. Cladonia species are of economic importance to reindeer-herders, such as the Sami in Scandinavia or the Nenets in Russia.
Mealy Forked Lichen I have never seen so many varieties of lichen in one place as I did In Fundy NPC including this Mealy Forked Lichen (Cladonia scabriuscula) Fundy National Park of Canada, New Brunswick, Canada. Canada,Cladonia scabriuscula,Fundy National Park of Canada,Geotagged,Mealy Forked Lichen,New Brunswick,Summer

Appearance

Podetia tall, slender, pointed, sparingly ± dichotomously branched, the branches ascending, podetial surface partly decorticate, corticate regions scabrid with small, discoid, peeling squamules, ultimate branches granular-sorediate; apothecia brown.

Naming

C.W. Dodge 1948

Distribution

This lichen ranges from Alaska south along the Pacific coast to California and from coastal Virginia north to Newfoundland and west to Manitoba. Frequent over acidic soil, moss, or decaying wood in open or shaded coastal areas, but also bogs and talus slopes; incompletely circumpolar (Goward 1999).

Status

G5 Secure

Habitat

Well-drained peat, acidic soils, wall tops and on heavy metal mine spoil.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.127600/Cladonia_scabriuscula
https://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/cd_nom/659976?lg=en
http://www.lichens.lastdragon.org/Cladonia_scabriuscula.html
Taxonomy
KingdomFungi
DivisionAscomycota
ClassLecanoromycetes
OrderLecanorales
FamilyCladoniaceae
GenusCladonia
SpeciesCladonia scabriuscula
Photographed in
Canada