Branched Pixie-cup Lichen

Description:

Podetia green-brown, ash-grey when dry, extremely variable in appearance, often terminating in numerous, short, erect branches or in irregular or asymetric cups with margins proliferating into branched, finger-like extensions, or cups more regular in overall shape but deeply cut into radiating segments, surface variably clothed with small warts and granules, often very patchily corticate, and sometimes also with sparse to dense small squamules, soredia absent or sparse; basal squamules small, incised; apothecia commonly present, pink- to red-brown when fresh, often ring-like, on tips of branches and proliferations. Widespread in degraded, peaty habitats, on rotting wood and in Cladonia heath on gravels, sands and coastal dunes, but often mixed with other species.

Habitat:

Spotted on a rotting log in a ponderosa pine dominate forest.