Description: This ‘pinhead’ lichen has minuscule stalks (<1mm high) and a greenish-yellow dusting over the lower part of the disc head. The immersed thallus has no special colouring but will scratch orange with a fingernail; it is the only Chaenotheca in Ireland to do this. It grows in the crevices of dry, deciduous tree bark, often in good numbers, for example, old oaks, in dapple-shaded woods. Thinly scattered in the north and east, rare in western Ireland.

Key Identification Features:

• Pretty ‘pin-lichen’ with green-yellow dusting of pruina on disc head
• Stalks < 1mm high; immersed thallus, orange when scratched; forms colonies in crevices low down on bole of mature, dry, acid-barked trees.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

Distribution Map from NBN: Chaenotheca hispidula at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Chaenotheca hispidula at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.