Spotting

Description:

Orange fungus growing through the lichen. Roughly club-shaped with a brighter orange tip than the stalk. These are very plentiful on this tree, and always quite small.

Habitat:

Growing through some foliose lichens on a maple tree in a suburban yard. This tree is covered in a variety of lichen species

Notes:

Someone in a lichen forum told me that it is likely not a lichenicolous fungus as I originally thought, but rather that it is associated with lichen because "the lichen modifies the environment in a way that suits the fungus. But that the fungus is not living on or in the lichen. It seems to push between the plicate lobes of Dirinaria and other foliose sp. just as your images show."