Green Reindeer Lichen

Description

Green Reindeer Lichen is a slow growing, long-lived, shrubby lichen. It is very common in Alaska, throughout Canada, and across the northern United States except in the Pacific northwest. It grows on the ground in full sun on thin soil, clay, rock, turf, moss, dead leaves, and debris. It is especially common in white spruce and black spruce forests, but is also found in abandoned fields and grassy areas. It forms dense mats with other species of Cladonia that can form a continuous carpet on the forest floor. A single clump often contains more than one species of Cladonia.

The vegetative body (thallus) is a shrubby tuft of many branching stems. The primary thallus is inconspicuous and composed of scaly, flaky, rounded, prostrate pieces (squamulose). The secondary talus is conspicuous, upright, three dimensional, and shrubby (fruticose). It is composed of numerous, richly branched, hollow stalks (podetia). The podetia are 1⅝″ to 4¾″ long, 1 ⁄64″ to 1 ⁄32″ (0.5 to 0.8 mm) wide, and whitish, cream-colored, pale yellowish-gray, or pale yellowish-green. They grow upward at the tip and die back at the base. They readily absorb moisture, becoming flexible when moist, crusty when dry. Each branch ends in two to four short branchlets which spread in all directions. Spores are produced at the tip of each branchlet and these tips are sometimes light brown. Separate, cup-shaped, spore-producing structures (apothecia) are not produced.

Similar Species

Gray Reindeer Lichen (Cladonia rangiferina) terminal branchlets are swept in the same direction.

Ecology

Substrate

Ground. Rock, clay, thin soil, moss, turf, dead leaves, and debris

Growth Form

Fruticose

Habitat

Spruce forests, abandoned fields, grassy areas. Full sun.

Hosts