28 December 2008

Coppice stool lichens

Where coppice stools receive a large amount of sunshine (on the north side of a wide ride, for example), they tend to grow a coat of lichen rather than moss.

20081215 BHW Cpt 6c & 7a 010

The chestnut stool here is thickly clothed with one of the 'pixie cup' lichens (Cladonia coniocraea), sometimes known as the 'powderhorn lichen' because of the shape of the slender, tapering, spore-bearing podetia that rise from the leafy bases of the plants.

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