Description: This showy lichen with branched, grey, orange-tinged, coral-like, bushy tufts (to about 6cm high) occurs on both mossy trees and siliceous rocks. Lower branches are tough cylinders' the upper, a much divided, brittle, ‘shock’. The discs are globose at the shoot tips and will split open like miniature puffballs when ripe. It occurs commonly on suitable acid substrates throughout Ireland, but is more frequent in the west.

Key Identification Features:

• The coral-like, explosive tufts with ‘shock’ of branches to 6cm high
• Branches never flattened or looking shorn or grazed.

Original text submitted by Simon Davey

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

iNaturalist: Sphaerophorus globosus at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.