Description: In Ireland, this epiphytic ‘beard’ lichen is extremely rare. It has a pendant habit that makes it easy to overlook as B. fuscescens. The thallus, however, is paler: grey-green, in small, sweeping hair-like tresses, occasionally showing some blackening near the base. The soralia occur in wart-like clusters (not singly as in B. fuscescens) and have a fast PD+ orange-red reaction. It has been recorded from Counties Fermanagh and Antrim. It is usually on conifers and broadleaved trees, but in Antrim it has been recorded from boulders and Calluna stems.

Key Identification Features:

• Like B. fuscescens but grey-green in colour (not pale to dark brown) with some blackening towards the base of the branches, and with wart-like clusters of soralia
• Chemically, it has a very fast reaction: PD+ orange-red.

Original text submitted by Vince J. Giavarini

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

iNaturalist: Bryoria subcana at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.