Description: This robust, grey-green, ‘reindeer’ lichen forms thick, bushy, erect tufts and mounds (to 10cm in height) in moorland and mountainous areas and around peat bogs. The branched stems terminate in their drawn-out tips being all bent in one direction like pianists’ fingers hovering over the keys. It occurs more or less scattered throughout Ireland.

Key Identification Features:

• Its ‘reindeer’ lichen form, repeated branching and one-directional bending of the terminal branches distinguish it
• In Cladonia ciliata which is mauve at the top, only the branch tips are bent and not the branches.

Original text submitted by Simon Davey

Distribution Map from NBN: Cladonia arbuscula s. lat. at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Cladonia arbuscula s. lat. at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.